DOCSLIB.ORG

Ideologies Of

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Ideologies Of University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School November 2017 The imeT to Love: Ideologies of "Good" Parenting at a Family Service Organization in the Southeastern United States Anna Davidson Abella University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Sociology Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Abella, Anna Davidson, "The imeT to Love: Ideologies of "Good" Parenting at a Family Service Organization in the Southeastern United States" (2017). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6991 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Time to Love: Ideologies of “Good” Parenting at a Family Service Organization in the Southeastern United States by Anna Davidson Abella A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Rebecca Zarger, Ph.D. Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman, Ph.D Tara Deubel, Ph.D. Laurel Graham, Ph.D. Elizabeth Miller, Ph.D. Date of Approval: November 9, 2017 KeyWords: social reproduction, attachment, ethnography, neoliberal, women and work Copyright © 2017, Anna Davidson Abella Dedication This Work is dedicated to parents of young children everyWhere Who are grappling With how to best raise their children while facing personal, structural, or economic challenges at the same time. May our society grow to be one that genuinely supports all families so that parents, caregivers, and children all have What they need to be content and fulfilled. Acknowledgments I would like to acknoWledge several people Who have provided much needed support to me throughout the past six and a half years. First, I want to thank my husband, Gabe, who not only supported my preposterous plan to begin a PhD program while I was pregnant with our first child, but Who was proactive in helping me find the time and space to study, research, and Write throughout the whole process. My sister, Lee, Was instrumental in encouraging me at each step, especially When I thought I would quit early on. Both Gabe and Lee, Who Work full-time jobs during the day, have flexed their schedules numerous times to fill gaps in childcare that I otherWise Would have provided so that I could take an afternoon class, go to a meeting, or do intervieWs in the middle of the day. My young children Were (mostly) patient and understanding at times When I had to Work in front of them instead of playing With them. Juggling family, school, and Work was never easy, but it was possible because I had such a strong support system. I have been fortunate to be able to walk alongside my sister, Catie, in my parenting journey and to learn from her and share experiences with her as I studied and lived in the World of parenting while our girls were all little. I have my parents to thank for raising my sisters and me in a Way that alloWed us to be independent and free to pursue Whatever We Wished, but still remain rooted in family. I should thank my extended family, as well, for being so considerate of my need to spend time doing research or Writing during every family get-together and vacation over the past several years. Finally the late nights of secluding myself and staying up to study are over. All of my family has been nothing but encouraging, and I knoW I am so fortunate to have the kind of unconditional support they have offered in this and any other endeavor I’ve embarked on. There are also several people whose academic (and sometimes personal) guidance has been instrumental to my success in the program. Although I started out as an English major, that path abruptly shifted the day I took my seat in Dr. Kevin Yelvington’s undergraduate Cultural Anthropology class at USF. After listening to him for only half the class, I kneW I had found the missing link to my previous course of study–the focus on any and all things human. I decided to change my major that very day. I have him to thank for inspiring me to choose anthropology as my career and for being a mentor to me all these years. I have also found tremendous support in my advisor, Dr. Rebecca Zarger–from letting me bring my baby and toddler to her office for meetings, to advocating for me and challenging me to produce my best work. Likewise, all of my committee members have contributed, each in their own Way, to helping me see blind spots or providing important critiques of my proposals and drafts so that I could ultimately create a Well-rounded and compelling dissertation. I consider them all role models Who have shaped my ideas about being a professional researcher. Finally, I express my sincere gratitude to the parents and staff members Who allowed me to come into their homes and workplaces to talk about parenting–especially since this topic can feel personal for parents. The insights of all of the parents and staff are extremely valuable and I feel strongly that, by discussing their ideas about parenting and the way organizations interact with families, they have contributed to a larger dialogue about ideologies and social practices that is necessary to understand from multiple perspectives. Table of Contents List of Tables .............................................................................................................................. iii List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. iv Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... v Chapter One: VieWing Cultural Values through a Parenting Lens ................................................ 1 The Impact of Family Changes on Social Life During the Twentieth Century ................... 6 Attachment Theory and Its Impact on the “Ideal” Parent ................................................... 9 Women and Work: An Unresolved Quandary .................................................................. 11 Intensive Parenting .......................................................................................................... 14 Family Service Organizations: A Response to National Movements .............................. 16 Situating Nurturing Minds ................................................................................................ 18 Chapter Two: The Emergence of an Anthropology of Parenting ................................................. 22 Early Ethnographies: The Theoretical Value of Studying Childrearing ............................ 25 Mothers, Work, and Feminist Perspectives ..................................................................... 31 Practice Theory and Its Lasting Impact ........................................................................... 34 Reproduction Theory: A Twist on Socialization ............................................................... 38 Concerted Cultivation–New Insights ................................................................................ 41 The Current State of Anthropology and Parenting .......................................................... 46 Chapter Three: Planning an Ethnography of Parenting .............................................................. 50 Ethnography and Parenting Studies: A Continuance ...................................................... 51 An Evolving Methodology ................................................................................................ 53 Data Analysis: Revealing Patterns through Process ....................................................... 62 Ethical Considerations of Critiquing “Good” Work ........................................................... 64 Positionality and Personal Involvement ........................................................................... 65 My Identity as a White, Educated Mother ........................................................................ 67 The Irony of Studying Parenting and Time ...................................................................... 71 Getting the Story Right .................................................................................................... 73 Chapter Four: Structural Influences on Parenting Ideology ........................................................ 74 From Child Abuse Intervention to Prevention .................................................................. 75 New Directions: Early Child Development ....................................................................... 78 Being “On Track” ............................................................................................................. 81 Reasonable Expectations and Positive Parenting ........................................................... 89 “Universal Access” and Redefining Risk .......................................................................... 94 Parenting In Time .......................................................................................................... 102 “Someone Please Give Us an AnsWer” ........................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Bad Is Stronger Than Good
    Review of General Psychology Copyright 2001 by the Educational Publishing Foundation 2001. Vol. 5. No. 4. 323-370 1089-2680/O1/S5.O0 DOI: 10.1037//1089-2680.5.4.323 Bad Is Stronger Than Good Roy F. Baumeister and Ellen Bratslavsky Catrin Finkenauer Case Western Reserve University Free University of Amsterdam Kathleen D. Vohs Case Western Reserve University The greater power of bad events over good ones is found in everyday events, major life events (e.g., trauma), close relationship outcomes, social network patterns, interper- sonal interactions, and learning processes. Bad emotions, bad parents, and bad feedback have more impact than good ones, and bad information is processed more thoroughly than good. The self is more motivated to avoid bad self-definitions than to pursue good ones. Bad impressions and bad stereotypes are quicker to form and more resistant to disconfirmation than good ones. Various explanations such as diagnosticity and sa- lience help explain some findings, but the greater power of bad events is still found when such variables are controlled. Hardly any exceptions (indicating greater power of good) can be found. Taken together, these findings suggest that bad is stronger than good, as a general principle across a broad range of psychological phenomena. Centuries of literary efforts and religious pothesis that bad is stronger than good (see also thought have depicted human life in terms of a Rozin & Royzman, in press). That is, events struggle between good and bad forces. At the that are negatively valenced (e.g., losing metaphysical level, evil gods or devils are the money, being abandoned by friends, and receiv- opponents of the divine forces of creation and ing criticism) will have a greater impact on the harmony.
    [Show full text]
  • Evil in the Personal Experience of St. Augustine
    RUCH FILOZOFICZNY LXXVI 2020 2 Agnieszka Biegalska University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn, Poland ORCID: 0000-0002-5653-9684 e-mail: [email protected] DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/RF.2020.024 Our heart is restless until it rests in you. St. Augustine, Confessions* Evil in the Personal Experience of St. Augustine The most disturbing issue that permeates all of St. Augustine’s work is the question of the existence of evil, experiencing it and inflicting it. Giovanni Papini claims that Augustine, “before he found himself in finding God, […] had to exhaust the experience of evil to the very depths”.1 This remark redirects our thinking about Augustine’s under- standing of evil from the field of theoretical considerations to the realm of his personal experience of evil, where his philosophical and theologi- cal thought seems to be rooted. For many years, Augustine experienced evil and inflicted it himself. In the Confessions we read: “our life was one of being seduced and seducing, being deceived and deceiving, in a vari- ety of desires. Publicly I was a teacher of the arts which they call liberal; privately I professed a false religion – in the former role arrogant, in the latter superstitious, in everything vain”.2 A sense of persistence in false- hood and iniquity, noticed by Augustine quite late, a few years before his death in 430 (if one can consider his Confessions as a testimony to this important moment) and his desire to know the truth about himself, * Saint Augustine, Confessions, transl. with an introduction and notes by Henry Chadwick (USA: Oxford University Press, 1991), 1, i (1).
    [Show full text]
  • The Appeal of a Good Conscience 21Baptism, Which Corresponds To
    The Appeal of a Good Conscience 21Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. 1 Peter 3:21-22. Peter says that the physical act of baptism does not save a person, but like eight souls were saved through water in the ark, baptism saves in the same way. If it is not the act what is it? I believe verse 22 tells us the secret. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father in heaven with angels and authorities and powers in subjection to him obeying what He says. He’s the one who commanded baptism for the remission of sins in Mark 16:15-16. Therefore, baptism is the appeal commanded by Jesus who is now Lord of lords and King of kings. When a person obeys Jesus in his baptism. God responds with salvation for that person’s good conscience in his or her obedience. Ananias said to Saul who was to become Paul, “Why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on His name” (Acts 22:16). Ananias was speaking of Jesus who commanded that men be baptized as an appeal for salvation. It is calling on Jesus to save us because He said do it and a Christian has become subject to the Lordship of Jesus.
    [Show full text]
  • Life with Augustine
    Life with Augustine ...a course in his spirit and guidance for daily living By Edmond A. Maher ii Life with Augustine © 2002 Augustinian Press Australia Sydney, Australia. Acknowledgements: The author wishes to acknowledge and thank the following people: ► the Augustinian Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, Australia, for support- ing this project, with special mention of Pat Fahey osa, Kevin Burman osa, Pat Codd osa and Peter Jones osa ► Laurence Mooney osa for assistance in editing ► Michael Morahan osa for formatting this 2nd Edition ► John Coles, Peter Gagan, Dr. Frank McGrath fms (Brisbane CEO), Benet Fonck ofm, Peter Keogh sfo for sharing their vast experience in adult education ► John Rotelle osa, for granting us permission to use his English translation of Tarcisius van Bavel’s work Augustine (full bibliography within) and for his scholarly advice Megan Atkins for her formatting suggestions in the 1st Edition, that have carried over into this the 2nd ► those generous people who have completed the 1st Edition and suggested valuable improvements, especially Kath Neehouse and friends at Villanova College, Brisbane Foreword 1 Dear Participant Saint Augustine of Hippo is a figure in our history who has appealed to the curiosity and imagination of many generations. He is well known for being both sinner and saint, for being a bishop yet also a fellow pilgrim on the journey to God. One of the most popular and attractive persons across many centuries, his influence on the church has continued to our current day. He is also renowned for his influ- ence in philosophy and psychology and even (in an indirect way) art, music and architecture.
    [Show full text]
  • The Highest Good for Plato Goodness Is an Abstract Concept That Is Very
    The Highest Good for Plato Goodness is an abstract concept that is very difficult to define, and saying what counts as the highest good is perhaps even more so. In Republic, Plato attempts to say something about what makes things good, but his answer is very vague in the end. Still, we can get some clarity on what he would have answered if asked what the highest good is, from what he says in this text. What counts as the highest good for Plato can be said to be knowledge of the Form of the Good, because it is necessary for knowing and using the other Forms well. The nature of the Forms is not clear in Republic; Plato writes about them as if his audience already knows what they are. Still, we can get some sense of what forms are like from the text. In several places he says that when two or more things share the same name, then they share a form. For example, in Book IV Socrates and Glaucon talk about the form of justice: “…are things called by the same name, whether they are bigger or smaller than one another, like or unlike with respect to that to which the name applies? Alike. Then a just man won’t differ at all from a just city in respect to the form of justice; rather he’ll be like the city” (435 a-b). But what is a Form, exactly? We can start to get a sense of what Plato means by a Form by looking back at Euthyphro.
    [Show full text]
  • Rosalind Hursthouse, on Virtue Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999
    Rosalind Hursthouse, On Virtue Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Pp. x, 275. Reviewed by Gilbert Harman, Department of Philosophy, Princeton Univer- sity Virtue ethics is atype of ethicaltheory in which the notion of virtue or good character plays a central role. This splendid new book describes a “program” for the development of a particular (“Aristotelian”) form of virtue ethics. The book is intended to be used as a textbook, but should be read by anyone interested in moral philosophy. Hursthouse has been a major contributor to the development of virtue ethics and the program she describes, while making use of the many contributions of others, is very much her program, with numerous new ideas and insights. The book has three parts. The first dispels common misunderstandings and explains how virtue ethics applies to complex moral issues. The sec- ond discusses moral motivation, especially the motivation involved in doing something because it is right. The third explains how questions about the objectivity of ethics are to be approached within virtue ethics. Structure Hursthouse’s virtue ethics takes as central the conception of a human be- ing who possesses all ethical virtues of character and no vices or defects of character—”human being” rather than “person” because the relevant char- acter traits are “natural” to the species. To a first approximation, virtue ethics says that a right action is an action among those available that a perfectly virtuous human being would charac- teristically do under the circumstances. This is only a first approximation because of complications required in order accurately to describe certain moral dilemmas.
    [Show full text]
  • Violent Evil and the General Aggression Model
    THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF Anderson, C.A., & Carnagey, N.L. (2004). Violent evil and the general aggression model. Chapter in A. Miller (Ed.) The Social Psychology of Good and Evil (pp. 168-192). New York: Guilford Publications. GOOD AND EVIL Edited by Arthur G. Miller THE GUILFORD PRESS New York London Violent Evil and the General Aggression Model 169 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the subsequent "war on terrorism" in Afganistan, the escalating conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, the ethnic/religious massacres in India, and the recent (and continuing) war in CHAPTER 8 Iraq. Of course, human violence is not new. Archeological and historical evidence makes it dear that violence was prevalent among our hunter/ gatherer ancestors 25,000 years. ago, among the Greek, Egyptian, and Roman societies 2,000-3,000 years ago, among most societies in the VIOLENT EVIL AND THE GENERAL last two centuries, and in almost every society today. Although technological advances have made mass violence easier to accomplish, "people" today are not more violence-prone than they were AGGRESSION MODEL thousands of years ago. Nonetheless, the prevalence of violence in contemporary society, the efficiency of modern weapons, and differences in violence rates between societies have collectively inspired a resurgence of interest in understanding such behavior at CRAIG A. ANDERSON individual, group, and societal levels. The hope, of course, is that such understanding will lead to significant reductions in future rates of violence at NICHOLAS L. CARNAGEY each level of analysis. Note: This pdf was created from scanned book pages that were then run As is apparent throughout the chapters in this book on good and evil, the through OCR software.
    [Show full text]
  • 5. What Matters Is the Motive / Immanuel Kant
    This excerpt is from Michael J. Sandel, Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?, pp. 103-116, by permission of the publisher. 5. WHAT MATTERS IS THE MOTIVE / IMMANUEL KANT If you believe in universal human rights, you are probably not a utili- tarian. If all human beings are worthy of respect, regardless of who they are or where they live, then it’s wrong to treat them as mere in- struments of the collective happiness. (Recall the story of the mal- nourished child languishing in the cellar for the sake of the “city of happiness.”) You might defend human rights on the grounds that respecting them will maximize utility in the long run. In that case, however, your reason for respecting rights is not to respect the person who holds them but to make things better for everyone. It is one thing to con- demn the scenario of the su! ering child because it reduces overall util- ity, and something else to condemn it as an intrinsic moral wrong, an injustice to the child. If rights don’t rest on utility, what is their moral basis? Libertarians o! er a possible answer: Persons should not be used merely as means to the welfare of others, because doing so violates the fundamental right of self-ownership. My life, labor, and person belong to me and me alone. They are not at the disposal of the society as a whole. As we have seen, however, the idea of self-ownership, consistently applied, has implications that only an ardent libertarian can love—an unfettered market without a safety net for those who fall behind; a 104 JUSTICE minimal state that rules out most mea sures to ease inequality and pro- mote the common good; and a celebration of consent so complete that it permits self-in" icted a! ronts to human dignity such as consensual cannibalism or selling oneself into slav ery.
    [Show full text]
  • Moral Relativism
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research New York City College of Technology 2020 The Incoherence of Moral Relativism Carlo Alvaro CUNY New York City College of Technology How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ny_pubs/583 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] 1 The Incoherence of Moral Relativism Abstract This paper is a response to Park Seungbae’s article, “Defence of Cultural Relativism”. Some of the typical criticisms of moral relativism are the following: moral relativism is erroneously committed to the principle of tolerance, which is a universal principle; there are a number of objective moral rules; a moral relativist must admit that Hitler was right, which is absurd; a moral relativist must deny, in the face of evidence, that moral progress is possible; and, since every individual belongs to multiple cultures at once, the concept of moral relativism is vague. Park argues that such contentions do not affect moral relativism and that the moral relativist may respond that the value of tolerance, Hitler’s actions, and the concept of culture are themselves relative. In what follows, I show that Park’s adroit strategy is unsuccessful. Consequently, moral relativism is incoherent. Keywords: Moral relativism; moral absolutism; objectivity; tolerance; moral progress 2 The Incoherence of Moral Relativism Moral relativism is a meta-ethical theory according to which moral values and duties are relative to a culture and do not exist independently of a culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Can God's Goodness Save the Divine Command Theory
    CAN GOD’S GOODNESS SAVE THE DIVINE COMMAND THEORY FROM EUTHYPHRO? JEREMY KOONS Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar Abstract. Recent defenders of the divine command theory like Adams and Alston have confronted the Euthyphro dilemma by arguing that although God’s commands make right actions right, God is morally perfect and hence would never issue unjust or immoral commandments. On their view, God’s nature is the standard of moral goodness, and God’s commands are the source of all obligation. I argue that this view of divine goodness fails because it strips God’s nature of any features that would make His goodness intelligible. An adequate solution to the Euthyphro dilemma may require that God be constrained by a standard of goodness that is external to Himself – itself a problematic proposal for many theists. The Euthyphro dilemma is often thought to present a fatal problem for the divine command theory (aka theological voluntarism). Are right acts commanded by God because they are right, or are they right because they are commanded by God? If the former, then there is a standard of right and wrong independent of God’s commands; God’s commands are not relevant in determining the content of morality. This option seems to compromise God’s sovereignty in an important way. But the second horn of the dilemma presents seemingly insurmountable problems, as well. First, if God’s commands make right actions right, and there is no standard of morality independent of God’s commands, then that seems to make morality arbitrary. Thus, murder is not wrong because it harms someone unjustly, but merely because God forbids it; there is (it seems) no good connection between reason and the wrongness of murder.
    [Show full text]
  • Mothers Across Borders: a Transnational Analysis Of
    MOTHERS ACROSS BORDERS: A TRANSNATIONAL ANALYSIS OF PARENTING BETWEEN INDIAN MOTHERS IN EDISON AND KOLKATA by MADHURIMA DAS A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Sociology and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2017 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Madhurima Das Title: Mothers Across Borders: A Transnational Analysis of Parenting Between Indian Mothers in Edison and Kolkata This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Sociology by: Eileen Otis Chairperson Ellen Scott Core Member Jill Harrison Core Member Arafaat Valiani Institutional Representative and Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2017 ii © 2017 Madhurima Das iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Madhurima Das Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology June 2017 Title: Mothers Across Borders: A Transnational Analysis of Parenting Between Indian Mothers in Edison and Kolkata. This dissertation addresses the central question- How are parenting methodologies across the sending and receiving nations shaped by larger macro forces embedded in economy and labor market forces? In order to answer this key question this project analyzes interviews with 59 middle-class mothers in Edison, New Jersey and Kolkata, India. This project contributes to the larger scope of immigration and transnational studies while placing them at the cross section of globalization of economy, labor market and education. The first chapter examines extensively the schooling systems in Edison and Kolkata and the ways it shapes parenting methods in these two locations.
    [Show full text]
  • The Family Models Held by Social Workers and Family Policy Programmes: Critical Remarks on Gender and Class Perspectives Prof
    ERIS web journal, 1/2012 The family models held by social workers and family policy programmes: critical remarks on gender and class perspectives Prof. Dr. Barbara Thiessen University of Applied Science Landshut, Faculty Social Work Abstract Supporting families is one of the main tasks of social work. Financial support, health or psychological assistance: social workers have to deal with families. But what are families? Which models do social workers employ when they think of a “normal family”, what do they expect of mothers and fathers? What is in their eyes “successful” parenting? On the other hand, how does the family experience itself as a client? Are there discrepancies between their own understanding of the notion family and what they think social workers expect of their family life? Empirical studies on the family model ideas held by social workers and their clients illustrate differences, e.g. the different parenting models of “natural growth” vs. “concerted cultivation” (Lareau 2003). They also show us how gender and class perspectives are integrated in the different family models. Furthermore, empirical reconstructions of the different family models held by clients and social workers show growing feelings of uncertainty among clients about their way of living family. This constrains contact and evokes shame. The article intends to open the discussion on family models and their embedded gender and class constructions. The ability to reflect on thinking of a “normal family” should be part of the professional toolkit of social workers. Preliminaries: Starting with a practical example Today the girls from the Youth Club in Reutlingen, South Germany, are going in a day trip.
    [Show full text]