Researching Families and Childhood

Abstract

In this chapter I set the scene by outlining the emergent fields of family studies and childhood research. I explore how these two interlinked areas have developed and identify some of the key constitutive issues which shape the respective fields. In just one chapter it is not possible to undertake an exhaustive review of all significant sociologically informed family and childhood studies research, let alone incorporate other perspectives, for example those that have shaped psychological understandings of parent-child relationships (see Hollway 2006) and cross-cultural kinship formations (see Carsten 2004). Thus my aim is more modest: to outline significant sociological approaches and interventions in family and childhood research inquiry. In the context of this book, this is important for two reasons. First, identifying who or what constitutes family shapes the scope for subsequent analysis of the patterning of family intimacy and the generational dynamic of parent-child relationships. Second, how families and childhood are characterised has affected the approaches that researchers adopt. For example, framed as a functional reproductive unit, the research lens tends not to look beyond the boundaries of ‘the family’. If families are envisaged as relationships materialised through sets of practices rather than as a consequence of fixed social categories (mother, father, sibling, etc.), then research is likely to include analysis of the everyday.