{"id":24848,"date":"2017-07-17T15:40:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T13:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shop.budrich-academic.de\/produkt\/parents-in-the-spotlight\/"},"modified":"2023-07-20T09:54:28","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T07:54:28","slug":"parents-in-the-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/shop.budrich.de\/en\/produkt\/parents-in-the-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents in the Spotlight \u2013 ZfF Sonderheft 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open Access:<\/strong> The article „The overburdened mother: How social workers view the private sphere“ by Lars <\/em>Alberth and Doris B\u00fchler-Niederberger is made open access (CC-BY-ND) and can be downloaded for free (PDF).<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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Children and parents have become a focus of debates on \u2018new social risks\u2019 in European welfare states. Policymaking elites have converged in defining such risks, and they have outlined new forms of parenting support to better safeguard children and activate their potential. Increasingly, parents are suspected of falling short of public expectations. Contributors to this special issue scrutinize this shift towards parenting as performance and report recent forms of parenting support.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Children and their parents have become a focal point of debates on \u2018new social risks\u2019 and the strong need for \u2018new public policies\u2019 in many European welfare states. Policy-related elites, along with UNICEF, the OECD, and the EU, have converged in defining such risks. They outlined parenting support measures, rules, and procedures to better safeguard children and to activate their potential, promote their well-being, and ensure equal opportunities. Parents are expected to offer their children \u2018grade A\u2019 parenting. However, they are increasingly suspected of failing to meet public expectations. Hence, agencies advocating children\u2019s best interest are intervening in parenting practices at an increasingly earlier age on the grounds of potential risks. The boundaries between what has been seen as \u2018family\u2019 or \u2018private\u2019 versus \u2018public affairs\u2019 are being redrawn by discourses as well as by \u2018evidence-based\u2019 measures to intervene and tackle child-related risks.<\/p>\n

Contributors to this special issue from Belgium England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden are scrutinizing this \u2018turn to parenting\u2019. They analyse which parenting practices are now \u2018in the spotlight\u2019 and report on recent forms of support for parents. Whereas debates on \u2018new risks\u2019 and the need for \u2018child-centred social investments\u2019 have converged, parenting support measures still vary across countries both quantitatively and qualitatively. Such variations result from path-dependent institutional settings, public sentiments, and policy \u2018cultures\u2019. This issue offers an excellent opportunity to study parenting support policies in countries representing different \u2018worlds\u2019 of family policy. It highlights different ideas on the child\u2019s proper status in society and on good parenting along with variations in the influence of experts on parenting and practitioners\u2019 attitudes towards it \u2013 especially the parenting practiced by mothers from different backgrounds.<\/p>\n

Contents<\/a><\/p>\n

From the Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n