Publication details
Složené rodiny a perspektiva dětských aktérů: nové tematické a metodologické přístupy ve výzkumu rodin po rozvodu
| Title in English | Stepfamilies and the perspective of child actors New thematic and methodological approaches to the research of divorced families |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2009 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Sociální studia |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Sociology, demography |
| Keywords | children-centred research; stepfamilies; children as social actors; methodology; post-divorce family |
| Description | The text focuses on social science approaches to the research of both divorce and postdivorce arrangements. It draws attention to the importance of a child, not just in the process of family reconstruction, but also within a general discourse of new childhood sociology. In the first part of the text, the reader learns about demographic data about both divorce and the existence of compound families in the Czech Republic. The text also deals with the ways this situation is reflected by both Czech sociologists and their foreign colleagues. The development of the research of the postdivorce situation reflects changes in sociological viewing of the family as such: from its stereotypical definition in the "ideal" nuclear form, to the influence of high divorce rates on the research agenda, to the redefinition of divorce as a remarkably negative event damaging the development of children, to a negotiated event, which the children can manage depending on communication on the part of their parents. Emphasizing children s role in the process of creation of new families, the second part of the text focuses on broader conceptual and methodological aspects of new conception of childhood in social science. The most current trend in the relation towards children within social science research leads to emphasizing the role of children participants and their own subjectivity: children are no longer seen as passive objects of research interest; more often, their independence and subjectivity are distinguished. The application of new methodological and thematic approach is introduced on a number of researches dealing with divorce. New researches show children as independent and reflexive participants feeling their own responsibility, and dealing with, among other things, the moral dimension of the postdivorce situation. The end of the text suggests topics for social science research within this issue, relevant for Czech context. |
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