Recognising the caring capabilities of birth families of removed children: Towards a critical policy agenda

Abstract

Vulnerable families are subject to a myriad of State interventions. In this article, we analyse how interventions of the neo-liberal State may undermine, rather than activate, the caring capabilities of vulnerable families across the life course. We define ‘vulnerable families’ as financially disadvantaged families with complex and enduring needs. Drawing on examples from Australia, England and the USA, we consider how neo-liberal policy reforms may weaken the caring capabilities of these families. We focus our analysis on vulnerable families who have been subject to one of the most intrusive forms of state intervention: the removal of a child. We explain Bourdieu’s concept of ‘misrecognition’ and outline its utility for analysing the neo-liberal state’s failure to recognise and develop the caring function of birth families. We consider the implications of this analysis for the development of a critical research and policy agenda with vulnerable families.

Governing homeless mothers: the unmaking of home and family

“…Second, our work has theoretical and conceptual significance for housing studies. In helping us to better understand the fall out for homeless mothers who are exposed to England's social governance regimes, we have utilised a conceptual scaffold that draws on key ideas and terminology within the critical literature, including that of 'maternal outcasts' (Broadhurst and Mason;Povey, 2019); (mis)recognition (Healy, 2019); 'welfare penalties' and 'collateral consequences' (Broadhurst and Mason, 2017). These perspectives are necessarily anchored, even if not explicitly so, in wider theories about how power and control are exercised and with what purpose.…”

“…Yet, explicit signifiers of 'risk' and 'neglect' are synonymous with signifiers of poverty such that what may be labelled as abusive, in which mothers are held culpable, may in fact reflect lack of income. Sparse food cupboards and inadequate seasonal clothing are two examples (Healy, 2019;Swift andParada, 2004. cf. Gupta et al, 2016;Walsh and Douglas, 2009).…”

“…They are 'maternal outcasts'. Such responses to child welfare deny the current and future caring capacities of parents (Morriss, 2018) and, drawing on Bourdieu, Healy (2019) conceptualises this failure of the state as a problem of 'recognition'. For Povey, (2017: 272) this gives rise to an 'adversarial dynamic in parent-state relationships'.…”

“…The idea was it was clean start for them to be able to be free to do that but they can't cos I can't go out and babysit him with his mates and then be with the other one. (Nadine) Nadine's comments highlight how the temporary accommodation system, like that of CSC does not serve older children well (Healy, 2019). Harriet's older son had refused to stay at the refuge, as an unfamiliar and intimidating place and Roxanne described how she too had become separated from her older daughter, due to the cramped conditions and boredom experienced by her children at a hotel that had been offered by a local authority : Me daughter, she refused to stay at the hotel, so she wanted to stay with me mum and dad cos she wanted her own space and stuff (Roxanne) Visitation rules that varied across temporary accommodation posed a particular problem.…”

“…In the first part of the article we bring together the work of key academics who have been researching and affording insights on the social policy context of the last 20 years within the UK and other post-industrial capitalist nations. This work exposes the ways in which governing frameworks impact on families facing adversity and marginalised women in highly gendered ways (Davies and Krane 2006;De Bendictis, 2012;Gillies et al, 2017;Healy, 2019;Lister 2006;Morris and Featherstone, 2010;Povey, 2017). We then provide details of the research study and the methodology that informed it, before presenting salient themes from our analysis of women's understandings of their homelessness experiences.…”