This book explores the complex, evolving relationships between men, masculinities, and social welfare in contemporary context.
It is inspired by themes examined in ‘Men, Gender Divisions and Welfare’, an edited collection published in 1998 by Popay, Hearn, and Edwards. While international policy agendas reflect a growing commitment to critically addressing the relations between men, masculinities, and policy, in policy and popular discussions, societies continue to grapple with the question of ‘what to do with men?’ This question reflects an ongoing tension between the persistence of men’s power and control over welfare and policy development, alongside their ostensible avoidance of welfare services. The collection constitutes an up-to-date account of the gendered and social implications of policy and practice change for men, and their inherent contradictions and complexities, tracing both stability and change over the past 25 years.
This book will appeal to students and scholars in diverse fields, particularly in sociology, social policy, applied social sciences, gerontology, gender studies, youth studies, welfare studies, politics, and social geography. Given the volume’s empirical attention throughout to both policies and practice developments, it will also be of interest to those training in applied and vocational degrees such as health and social care, social work, family support, and health visiting.
1. Introduction: men and welfare in contemporary view
Anna Tarrant, Laura Way, Linzi Ladlow
PART 1: Men, gender divisions, welfare, and socio-historical change
2. Young men, young masculinities: a transnational dialogue
Jeff Hearn and Kopano Ratele
3. Parenting and patriarchy in the pandemic
Nikki van der Gaag
4. Men, work, and care in the UK in the wake of COVID-19
Sandy Ruxton and Stephen Burrell
5. Men beneficiaries of housing and/or trapped in Greek family welfare
Myrto Dagkouli-Kyriakoglou
PART 2: Fathering and diversity: a welfare lens in international perspective
6. ‘I have a hard time not worrying about my son’: an intersectional analysis of men’s narratives on the meaning and the practice of full-time fatherhood in the United States
Catherine Gallais
7. Being a father and a refugee: new social worlds of welfare and integration
Esther Dermott and Tina Miller
8. Divorced fathers in Sweden: changed models of parenting and fatherhood
Thomas Johansson and Jesper Andreasson
9. Unmarried fathers and shared parenting in ireland and beyond: a matter of justice or care?
Elizabeth Kiely and Robert Bolton
PART 3: Contexts for addressing men’s welfare
10. Absence of value: masculinity, disability, social class and alternative provision
Craig Johnston and Simon Bradford
11. Male victims of sexual violence and their welfare in the criminal justice system
B. Kennath Widanaralalage, Benjamin A. Hine, and Anthony D. Murphy
12. ‘You’re a number, you’re not a person’: the experiences of welfare protocols for men experiencing mental distress
Uisce Jordan
13. 'A man in an intimate relationship – between the uncompromising and the permissive': men's social position and willingness to stay in an unsatisfactory intimate relationship
Emilia Paprzycka and Edyta Mianowska
14. A systemic perspective on father engagement with child- and family-related social work interventions in Israel
Nadav Perez-Vaisvidovsky, Ayana Halpern, and Reli Mizrahi
15. No room to change? fatherhood, masculinities and child welfare
Ariane Critchley
PART 4: Men and their welfare across the lifecourse
16. Men’s welfare beyond the state: working fathers’ experiences of childcare within the family in Soviet Ukraine
Yuliya Hilevych
17. Loneliness and men’s welfare across the lifecourse: aligning approaches with masculinity, friendships, and relationships
Robert Hagan
18. Social participation and social support practices of older men from minoritised ethnic groups: lessons for social isolation and loneliness initiatives
Brenda Hayanga, Dylan Kneale, and Ann Phoenix
19. Caring, old age and masculinities: men’s experiences of caring and maintaining social connections in later life
Paul Willis, Alex Vickery and Jon Symonds
Biography
Anna Tarrant is Professor of Sociology at the University of Lincoln and UK Research & Innovation Future Leaders Fellow (2020–24). Her work examines men’s family participation in low-income families. She is author of Fathering and Poverty (2021).
Linzi Ladlow is a Research Fellow at the University of Lincoln, working on the Following Young Fathers Further study. Her research interests include young parenthood, families, housing, and disadvantage.
Laura Way is Research Fellow at the University of Lincoln, working on the Following Young Fathers Further study. Her research interests include ageing, gender and the lifecourse, youth culture, creative methods, and punk pedagogies. Laura is the author of Punk, Gender and Ageing. Just Typical Girls? (2020).
