Description: Prominent scholars in gender studies and the critical studies of men consider herein how varied institutional settings and policy influence the development of new models of fatherhood, and determine choices. The authors provide new insights from different historical and societal perspectives into the studies of men as gendered subjects, including the role of transnational and global issues on the practices of fatherhood, and the emergence of men's movements in contesting and reimaging fatherhood.
Brief description: Barbara Hobson is a Professor of Sociology and holds a chair in Sociology and Gender Studies at Stockholm University. She is a director of the Advanced Research School in Comparative Gender Studies, a program for international research exchange and advanced doctoral studies. Hobson is both the founding and current editor of Social Politics: International Studies of Gender, State, and Society and is the Vice President of the Research Committee on Poverty, Social Welfare, and Social Policy (RC 19 of the International Sociological Association'. She has published numerous articles on gender and welfare states on the themes of gender and citizenship, including women's agency and welfare state formation, solo mothers, and women's economic dependency in the family. Her current research and publications address (1) gender and economic citizenship within the framework of the European Union; and (2) social movements in trans-national policy arena. Her book publications include an edited collection, Gender and Citizenship in Transition and a coedited collection, Contested Concepts: Gender and Social Politics. The Fatherhood project, from which Making Men into Fathers emerged, was one of several international projects from an extensive research program grant, which was awarded to Barbara Hobson from the Centennial Fund of the Bank of Sweden. Another book from the project, Recognition Struggles and Social Movements: Contested Identities, Agency and Power, was published in 2003.
Review Quotes: "[T]his is an excellent anthology...This book will be essential reading for scholars of the welfare state and social policy. However, it will also be extremely valuable in graduate courses on social policy, family, and gender." American Journal of Sociology