******************************************************
* http://www.anthropologymatters.com *
* A postgraduate project comprising online journal, *
* online discussions, teaching and research resources *
* and international contacts directory. *
******************************************************
Call for papers: Parenting: kinship, expertise and anxiety (W043)
EASA2012: Uncertainty and Disquiet
Nanterre University, France, 10/07/2012 – 13/07/2012
*Convenors*
**
Marjorie Murray (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile)
[log in to unmask]
Charlotte Faircloth (University of Kent) [log in to unmask]
**
*Short Abstract*
This panel explores the implications of a trend towards expert-informed,
outcome-oriented 'intensive parenting' in a range of ethnographic contexts.
We focus on the intersection between kinship, expertise and anxiety,
highlighting the paradoxical perception of parents as omnipotent and
incompetent.
*Long Abstract *
A trend towards 'intensive parenting' has been widely noted by scholars
working in in a range of Euro-American contexts. This 'parenting' they
contend, is not just a new word for childrearing, or care activities
associated with traditional kinship roles. Instead, it requires a certain
level of expertise and an affiliation to a way of raising a child, framed
in theories that attribute parental centrality to particular 'outcomes'.
Parents are urged to 'spend a tremendous amount of time, energy and money
in raising their children' (Hays 1996:x). More broadly, recent social
policies in the UK and elsewhere have invested in 'parental education'
under the assumption that parenting is the source of, and solution to,
different social ills.
These changes have had a profound impact on the way adults experience
parenthood: cast as both omnipotent and incompetent, parents are encouraged
to seek 'support' from experts, triangulating the relationship with their
child. Parenting has become bound to the job of risk management, at once
creating and fuelling the market for these experts who 'enable' parents to
avoid certain risks and 'optimise' their children (Lee 2007). We ask then,
how does expertise intersect with kinship relations? Are parents actually
anxious and 'paranoid' (Furedi 2002), or does ethnographic evidence reveal
something different? Is this an international trend, or something confined
to specific class-based milieus in specific contexts? This panel will
explore the implications of this wider historical shift, through the use of
ethnographic examples.
To propose a paper please go to:
http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2012/panels.php5?PanelID=1071
The deadline for paper proposals is 28th November 2011.
Best wishes,
Marjorie Murray and Charlotte Faircloth
*************************************************************
* Anthropology-Matters Mailing List *
* To join this list or to look at the archived previous *
* messages visit: *
* http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/Anthropology-Matters.HTML *
* If you have ALREADY subscribed: to send a message to all *
* those currently subscribed to the list,just send mail to: *
* [log in to unmask] *
* *
* Enjoyed the mailing list? Why not join the new *
* CONTACTS SECTION @ www.anthropologymatters.com *
* an international directory of anthropology researchers *
***************************************************************
|