Emotional kinship care and neutral non-kinship care - the struggle between discourses
(2017) In Child & Family Social Work 22(2). p.1084-1093- Abstract
- In this paper, social workers' ideas of kinship care and non-kinship care as foster placement alternatives for vulnerable children are analysed and discussed. The study is based on group interviews with Swedish social workers, using a discourse analytic approach. The interviews took two vignettes of children who needed an immediate and long-term placement because one of the parents had killed the other parent, as their point of departure. Domestic violence is a common social problem across countries, and controversies about placement alternatives become even more apparent when discussing lethal violence. The analysis revealed three main discourses: ‘emotional kinship care’, ‘neutral non-kinship care’ and ‘a real family’. The emotional... (More)
- In this paper, social workers' ideas of kinship care and non-kinship care as foster placement alternatives for vulnerable children are analysed and discussed. The study is based on group interviews with Swedish social workers, using a discourse analytic approach. The interviews took two vignettes of children who needed an immediate and long-term placement because one of the parents had killed the other parent, as their point of departure. Domestic violence is a common social problem across countries, and controversies about placement alternatives become even more apparent when discussing lethal violence. The analysis revealed three main discourses: ‘emotional kinship care’, ‘neutral non-kinship care’ and ‘a real family’. The emotional kinship care discourse also revealed two competing sub-discourses: ‘emotions as glue that binds’ and ‘emotions as obscuring a child perspective’, displaying a struggle concerning the advantages and risks that social workers connected to kinship care. In this paper, the results and their implications for vulnerable children are discussed. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/70f42926-79dd-41e3-9409-cc664b1bda4b
- author
- Ponnert, Lina LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017-05
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- children in care system, discourse analysis, foster care, kinship care, social work, violence
- in
- Child & Family Social Work
- volume
- 22
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 10 pages
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85005893778
- wos:000400755700052
- ISSN
- 1356-7500
- DOI
- 10.1111/cfs.12328
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 70f42926-79dd-41e3-9409-cc664b1bda4b
- date added to LUP
- 2016-11-29 10:17:24
- date last changed
- 2022-04-09 01:07:00
@article{70f42926-79dd-41e3-9409-cc664b1bda4b,
abstract = {{In this paper, social workers' ideas of kinship care and non-kinship care as foster placement alternatives for vulnerable children are analysed and discussed. The study is based on group interviews with Swedish social workers, using a discourse analytic approach. The interviews took two vignettes of children who needed an immediate and long-term placement because one of the parents had killed the other parent, as their point of departure. Domestic violence is a common social problem across countries, and controversies about placement alternatives become even more apparent when discussing lethal violence. The analysis revealed three main discourses: ‘emotional kinship care’, ‘neutral non-kinship care’ and ‘a real family’. The emotional kinship care discourse also revealed two competing sub-discourses: ‘emotions as glue that binds’ and ‘emotions as obscuring a child perspective’, displaying a struggle concerning the advantages and risks that social workers connected to kinship care. In this paper, the results and their implications for vulnerable children are discussed.}},
author = {{Ponnert, Lina}},
issn = {{1356-7500}},
keywords = {{children in care system; discourse analysis; foster care; kinship care; social work; violence}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{1084--1093}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Child & Family Social Work}},
title = {{Emotional kinship care and neutral non-kinship care - the struggle between discourses}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12328}},
doi = {{10.1111/cfs.12328}},
volume = {{22}},
year = {{2017}},
}