This book examines how pathologising ideas of failing, chaotic and dysfunctional families create a powerful consensus that Britain is in the grip of a `parent crisis' and are used to justify increasingly punitive state policies.

About the Author
Tracey Jensen is Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Lancaster, UK. Her research interests are concerned with: the reproduction of inequalities and divisions through and across identity categories; policy and popular debates of social mobility and immobility; and parenting culture as it travels across different media and cultural sites and manifests in policy.

Reviews
"Quite simply a stunning tour de force. A riveting, page-turning dissection of the relationships between parenting culture, policy and neoliberalism... it analyses a staggering variety of texts and draws upon extensive interview data to explore the roots and ramifications of `mother-blame' in particular. It is a highly original and profoundly important sociological analysis... It is destined to become not only the book to read on parent-blame under neoliberal statecraft, but a classic in feminist media studies and political sociology. Beautifully written with a voice of urgency and integrity, the book offers... an illustration of why politically engaged and theoretically informed scholarship is so important in the context of chronic and widening social inequalities." Dr Tom Slater, University of Edinburgh
"A timely, energetic, and engaging critique of the presumptions behind parent-blaming in culture and policy-making." Dr Jennie Bristow, Canterbury Christ Church University
"A valuable contribution to the debate about the significance of `parenting' and an educative case study in the social construction of the `bad parent'." Jan Macvarish, University of Kent



Book Information
ISBN 9781447325062
Author Tracey Jensen
Format Paperback
Page Count 216
Imprint Policy Press
Publisher Policy Press