Family Policy and the Organisation of Childcare

Description

This book explains and theorises the ways in which family policy instruments come to shape the routine care arrangements of young children. Drawing on interviews with close to a hundred parents from very different walks of life in urban and rural Romania, the book provides a rich account of the care arrangement transitions these parents experience during their children’s first five years of life. The influence of family policies emerges as complex and uneven, affecting childcare decisions both directly and indirectly by contributing to the reproduction and legitimation of age-related hierarchies of care ideals. These cultural artefacts, reflective of both longstanding institutional legacies and recent policy innovations between 2006 and 2015, are the prism through which mothers and fathers from diverse backgrounds view and make decisions about their children’s care. This unique volume will be of interest and value to students and scholars of childcare, its organisation and family policy, specifically in post-socialist contexts. Front Matter ....Pages i-xix Introduction: Family Policies and the Making of Childcare Arrangements (Borbála Kovács)....Pages 1-23 Researching Families’ Childcare Decisions (Borbála Kovács)....Pages 25-49 Two-Tiered Romanian Family Policy and Inequality (Borbála Kovács)....Pages 51-91 Conceptualising the Making of Young Children’s Routine Care Arrangements (Borbála Kovács)....Pages 93-125 Childcare Arrangements for Babies and Toddlers (Borbála Kovács)....Pages 127-160 Childcare Arrangements During the ‘Gap Year’ (Borbála Kovács)....Pages 161-192 Childcare Arrangements for Preschool-Aged Children (Borbála Kovács)....Pages 193-221 Parents’ Employment Trajectories: Two Worlds of Work-Care Experiences (Borbála Kovács)....Pages 223-257 Conclusion: Theorising Childcare Decisions (Borbála Kovács)....Pages 259-277 Back Matter ....Pages 279-329