Parenting Culture Studies

"By retracing the way in which maternal and parental work is supervised by a whole series of experts, this quartet of researchers lifts the veil on what parenting means today. The first edition, published a decade ago, was already a masterpiece and influenced the work of many. This updated edition is essential for anyone interested in the politicization of parenting issues."

-Claude Martin, Emeritus Research Professor, National Centre for Scientific Research, France

"Future historians will wonder why more researchers were not documenting and refuting the idea that today's kids are more fragile and helpless than any before them, and ditto, their parents. These authors peer behind the endless parenting advice, warnings and 'best practices' to show us what is really going on when it comes to childhood, love, humanity, and the family." -Lenore Skenazy, President, Let Grow, USA, and Author of Free-Range Kids

Now in its second edition, Parenting Culture Studies seeks to understand how parenting is taken as a particular mode of childrearing that reflects broader social trends. Ten years after the initial volume's groundbreaking publication, the authors once again closely examine how the main aspects of parenting have been established, explored, and critically evaluated. Chapters revisit phenomena such as intensive parenting and politics around parenting, as well as controversial issues including policing pregnant women's bodies and parental determinism. In addition to updates throughout the volume, including those addressing literature that has built from the book's original publication, the book features a new third part discussing parents dealing with risk assessment, school closures, contradictory care arrangements, and vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ellie Lee is Director of the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies and Professor of Family and Parenting Research at University of Kent, UK.

Jennie Bristow is a Reader in Sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK.

Charlotte Faircloth is Associate Professor of Social Science in the UCL Social Research Institute at University College London, UK.

Jan Macvarish is Visiting Research Fellow in the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies at the University of Kent, UK.