TY - CHAP

T1 - Unequal paths to clienthood

T2 - Child protection and domestic bliss.

AU - Alberth, Lars

AU - Bühler-Niederberger, Doris

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - As child protection programs allow for a variety of constructions of clienthood, they might be susceptible to enforcing inequalities among their target population: children and their parents. Three steps on the unequal path to clienthood are presented on the basis of 70 case narrations from German child protection professionals. In a first step, child protection’s focus is shifted from children to adult clients. In a second step, this shift is gendered as it is geared specifically towards “mothers” and not “fathers.” Finally, not all mothers are considered equally: Child protection works on the premises of domestic bliss regulating poor mothers with the explicit goal of establishing a properly ordered household, thus promising “improvement” for the clients. On the basis of such a premise, children (in general), male caretakers, and mothers who are able to deliver a proper family performance may be underserved by child protection services, whereas poor mothers who are unable to follow the expectations of domestic bliss are further marginalized and placed under control.

AB - As child protection programs allow for a variety of constructions of clienthood, they might be susceptible to enforcing inequalities among their target population: children and their parents. Three steps on the unequal path to clienthood are presented on the basis of 70 case narrations from German child protection professionals. In a first step, child protection’s focus is shifted from children to adult clients. In a second step, this shift is gendered as it is geared specifically towards “mothers” and not “fathers.” Finally, not all mothers are considered equally: Child protection works on the premises of domestic bliss regulating poor mothers with the explicit goal of establishing a properly ordered household, thus promising “improvement” for the clients. On the basis of such a premise, children (in general), male caretakers, and mothers who are able to deliver a proper family performance may be underserved by child protection services, whereas poor mothers who are unable to follow the expectations of domestic bliss are further marginalized and placed under control.

KW - Sociology

KW - Kinderschutz

KW - Social Work and Social Pedagogics

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-52227-7_20

DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-52227-7_20

M3 - Contributions to collected editions/anthologies

SN - 978-3-031-52226-0

SN - 978-3-031-52229-1

SP - 315

EP - 330

BT - Overlapping Inequalities in the Welfare State.

A2 - Akkan, Başak

A2 - Hahmann, Julia

A2 - Hunner-Kreisel, Christine

A2 - Kuhn, Melanie

PB - Springer International Publishing AG

CY - Cham

ER -