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Social Science Marriage & Family

Family Boundaries

The Invention of Normality and Dangerousness

by (author) Caroline Knowles

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Jan 1997
Category
Marriage & Family, Men's Studies, Gender Studies, Children's Studies, Women's Studies
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781551111087
    Publish Date
    Jan 1997
    List Price
    $40.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442602564
    Publish Date
    Jan 1997
    List Price
    $24.95

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Description

p style=""margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"" class=""MsoNormal"">span style=""font-style: italic;"">Family Boundariesspan style=""""> shows what can be accomplished when families are viewed from the multi - perspectives of biography and of agencies charged with detecting and managing child abuse and setting boundaries of acceptable behavior in family life. Apart from our personal notions of the family, a social sense of it has developed from the professional practice - narratives which focus on dangerousness, thus rendering the family in rather rigid and archaic administrative terms. Furthermore, these administrative inventions of the family and the resulting attempts to effect child protection take on powerful meanings because they are supported in social policy and in law, and are constantly reflected in popular media images of family. The regulatory apparatus of these administrative inventions of family, the author argues, falls disproportionately on the poor and on mothers to whom it assigns a pivotal role as internal regulators.

p style=""margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"" class=""MsoNormal"">span style="""">

p style=""margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"" class=""MsoNormal"">span style="""">This book surveys the conceptions of motherhood, fatherhood, and childhood that emerge from the practices of agencies. It urges that there is a need to create forms of family management which balance the necessity to protect children with the rights of mothers and the responsibilities of fathers. In doing so, span style=""font-style: italic;"">Family Boundaries presents fresh insight into how we think about family relationships and the demands they impose.

About the author

Caroline Knowles is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University. She is the author of Race, Discourse, and Labourism as well as Family Boundaries: The Invention of Normality and Dangerousness.

Caroline Knowles' profile page