ABSTRACT
This volume explores negotiations around ‘parenting’ in a variety of geographical and historical locales. By drawing on a range of disciplinary perspectives, including the sociology of the family, new kinship studies, social policy studies and medical anthropology, the contributors here think about how the new ‘parenting’ culture we have observed in contemporary contexts intersects with ideologies of kinship, self and politics. Our introduction has three aims: to give a theoretical and historical context to the volume, to highlight the ways the chapters extend the existing literature on ‘parenting’, and to outline some of the themes that connect the contributions. We have grouped the chapters under the following headings, which we explore further below: The moral context for parenting; The structural constraints to ‘good’ parenting; Negotiating parenting culture; and Parenting and/as identity.
