CART: 0 item(s) $0.00Situated Fathering: A Focus on Physical and Social Spaces
| Edited by William Marsiglio, Kevin Roy, and Greer Litton Fox |
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Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. | |||||||||||||||||
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"Situated Fathering makes an outstanding contribution to how we understand fathers' lives in their many, varied contexts: physical, institutional, cultural, and social. A must read for serious students of fatherhood, researchers, and policy-makers."—Joseph H. Pleck, University of Illinois
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When men act as parents they do so in diverse physical and social spaces imbued with symbolic meaning. They father in the military overseas, on the farm, in dilapidated inner cities, immersed in ethnic neighborhoods, navigating idealized places of leisure where families go, as stepfathers in spaces where physical dimensions and family meanings intersect, as nonresident fathers managing less than ideal conditions, rolling across the interstate as long-haul truckers, playing catch alongside the house, managing precious family-time in prison work-release programs, as participants in community fatherhood initiatives, etc. Until now, family scholars had not explicitly theorized and focused on how physical space shapes fathers' lives. A distinct volume of theoretical and empirical research, Situated Fathering addresses this oversight by proposing a new framework for studying how various contingencies of physical space, in conjunction with social/symbolic issues, affect men's identities as fathers and their involvement with children. Consistent with public interest in men's efforts to "be there" as providers and caregivers, this book explores issues associated with the barriers and supports to involvement that are part of the physical and social environment. Written largely for family scholars and students, it emphasizes a future-oriented perspective by outlining directions for theoretically guided research in specific, often gendered fathering sites.
· Introduces an original theoretical framework highlighting the significance of physical and social spaces for men's identity construction as fathers and their involvement with their children
· Organized around a clear theoretical theme in that all chapters focus on how physical and social spaces influence fathers' lives
· Focuses on a diverse set of sites/settings in which men do fathering
· All chapters explicitly outline specific directions for future research in a wide range of fathering sites
· Interdisciplinary collection of leading scholars
· Has only original work, both theoretical and empirical
· Primarily based on qualitative, engaging, and accessible work
About the Authors
William Marsiglio is Professor of Sociology at the University of Florida. His recent books include: Stepdads: Stories of Love, Hope, and Repair, 2004.
Kevin Roy is Assistant Professor of Family Studies at the University of Maryland.
Greer Litton Fox is Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Tennessee in the Department of Child and Family Studies.