An ordinary complexity of care : Moving beyond 'The Family' in research with children

Summary, in English

For some time, studies of care in personal relationships have managed to move beyond a taken-for-granted focus on the nuclear family. In addition, studies of children and care have shown children's active engagement in doing care. In the project presented here, these two insights have been combined by allowing children to tell about and reflect upon their everyday life and caring situation, without preconceived assumptions of in what relationships and under what circumstances care is 'done'. The results reveal that there are significant practices and relations of care around children outside the nuclear family. I argue that an 'ordinary complexity of care' exists in children's lives, and these caring practices and relationships need to be taken into account in studies and conceptualizations of children and care. To capture this, the researcher must conduct careful methodological and conceptual work to allow the research participants to include 'others' in their telling of their everyday life.

• Author: Sara Eldén
• Department/s: Sociology
• Publishing year: 2016-07-07
• Language: English
• Pages: 175-192
• Publication/Series: Families, Relationships and Societies
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 2
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/204674315X14285937023932
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Policy Press
• Topic: Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
• Keywords: sociologi; concept of family; method; care; personal relationships; children; sociology
• Status: Published
• Project: Relationer kring omsorg bortom familjen (FAS 2010-0505)
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 2046-7435