“I’m going to give you this, and i’m going to give your brother the same thing”: (In)equality and legitimation of parental support as children transition into adulthood in France
Type de matériel :
23
This article, based on interviews with parents of young adults in France, explores parental support practices and norms as siblings transition into adulthood, a time when their futures become differentiated and parental financial and material support may be individualized by sibling. It brings to light a tension between heterogeneous and possibly unequal support practices and strong parental attachment to the norm of equality. As we show, the notion of “egalitarian fiction” makes it possible to conceptualize this tension, and to pursue analysis of actual practices (what is distributed) concomitantly with analysis of the rules that organize these exchanges, which vary by parents’ economic resources and couple status. We also analyze how the egalitarian fiction is constructed, used, and maintained within the family, finding that equality is staged during ritualized moments in which inegalitarian practices are banished backstage while parents make relational efforts to win their children’s adherence to or acceptance of the script and terms of the fiction.
Réseaux sociaux