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Frank Furedi to open discussion series on the dilemmas of 21st-century Parenting
Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent and the author of Paranoid Parenting: Why Ignoring the Experts May be Best for Your Child (Continuum Press 2001/2nd edition 2008), is to open 'Changing Parenting Culture', a new research seminar series that will explore how and why 21st-century parenting has become a constant source of public anxiety.
Professor Furedi, who also co-authored a recent report on the damaging effects of child protection policies (Licensed to Hug), will open the series on Thursday 8 January at the University of Kent with a discussion on why parenting has become so politicised.
Participants will include: Jennifer Howze, editor of Lifestyle at Times Online, and contributor to Alphamummy, Times Online; Penny Mansfield, Director, One Plus One; and Hugh Cunningham, Emeritus Professor of Social History, University of Kent, and author of The Invention of Childhood and Children and Childhood in Western Society Since 1500.
The discussion will be chaired by Dr Ellie Lee, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, and one of the organisers of the seminar series.
'Changing Parenting Culture' will continue on Friday 9 January.
Dr Lee said: 'I am looking forward to a discussion that can open up debate and ask some serious questions about the way British parenting culture has turned raising children into as much of an ordeal as it is a pleasure for mums and dads.'
Professor Furedi added: 'We need to take a reality check about what we expect of parents and we need to resist the temptation to turn child rearing into a political football.'
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, 'Changing Parenting Culture' will bring together researchers, parenting organisations and policymakers from Britain and abroad to explore and discuss the 'new parenting culture', which informs contemporary child-rearing practices. The seminars will: consider the way practices such as infant feeding, sleeping and discipline are influenced and modified by the demands of modern parenting culture; widen the agenda of policymakers, many of whom directly effect the experience of parents; and better inform public thinking on these issues.
Future seminars include: Gender and parenting culture, University of Cambridge, 3 April 2009; Child-rearing in a risk society, Aston University,16-17 September 2009; Policy and Parenting, London (venue tbc), spring 2010.
Contact: mediaoffice@kent.ac.uk
Story published at 11:05am 19 December 2008