Parenting Support as Policy Field: An Analytic Framework
This article develops an analytic framework for parenting support, treating it as both a form of social policy and a measure that intervenes more broadly in politics and society. It is suggested that, as a form of social policy, parenting support can be examined through analytical categories that are classic to social policy, such as: the nature of the offer or ‘good’ to parents, the modality of provision, conditions of access and operation, the policy setting and linkages to other policies, the unfolding of the policy over time and historical roots, philosophical underpinnings and dominant professional influences. In a second layer, the social and political roots and orientations of parenting support have to be investigated. When one does this by, for example, identifying the main actors involved in parenting support and the rationales and claims made for parenting support as a policy response, it becomes obvious that parenting support can be either a benign project of support or part of a more controlling educative or retraining exercise.
Le soutien à la parentalité : entre émancipation et contrôle
L’aide a la fonction parentale s’est structuree a partir de la fin des annees 1980 autour des reseaux administratifs ayant en charge la gestion de « l’operation pouponnieres » et elle constitue aujourd’hui une categorie de l’action des pouvoirs publics. Pour autant, elle ne renvoie pas a un referentiel univoque car elle est traversee par deux logiques contradictoires. Dans un cas, il s’agit de valoriser les competences des parents, meme lorsque ceux-ci sont « defaillants », afin qu’ils puissent effectivement assurer leurs droits et obligations. L’aide a la fonction parentale est ainsi mobilisee dans le cadre de projets visant a construire autour de l’enfant et de ses besoins une harmonie dont chacun pourrait tirer profit en terme de securite et d’epanouissement. Dans le second cas, le soutien a la fonction parentale est rattache a une conception disciplinaire de l’action publique qui se nourrit de la problematique de l’insecurite, et qui repose sur la menace et la repression. L’action sur la parentalite est un moyen de securite publique et la prevention vise alors moins la securite de l’enfant que celle des tiers. Entre l’emancipation et le controle, nous observons ainsi deux manieres opposees de concevoir les rapports entre la sphere du prive et celle du public, mais une meme focalisation sur l’enfant que traduit l’affirmation repetee de l’ordre familial comme composante de l’ordre social global.
The Powerful Relational Language of ‘Family’: Togetherness, Belonging and Personhood
This article examines the notion of ‘family’ to consider how it may be understood in people's everyday lives. Certain recurrent and powerful motifs are apparent, notably themes of togetherness and belonging, in the context of a unit that the person can be ‘part of’. At the same time, there may be important variations in the meanings given to individuality and family, evoking differing understandings of the self and personhood. I consider these ideas further through globally relevant but variable cultural themes of autonomy and relationality, suggesting the term ‘social person’ as a heuristic device to distinguish the sense of ‘close-knit selves’ that may be involved in some understandings of personhood. I argue that this version of personhood may be powerfully expressed through ‘family’ meanings, with a significance which can be at least provisionally mapped along lines of inequality and disadvantage within and between societies around the world. These forms of connectedness may be hard to grasp through those theoretical and methodological frameworks which emphasize the (relational) individual. I argue that, in affluent English speaking societies, 1 there may be little alternative to the language of ‘family’ for expressing such forms of relationality and connection.