Nadav Perez-Vaisvidovsky

New publication alert!🚨 🚨 🚨

'Family Practice with Fathers, social care, and Capabilities' just published at the wonderful Journal of Family Theory & Review!

I'm so excited, as this is a theoretical piece I've been working on for a while (and, in my most objective opinion, is pretty good!)

https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12528

A short thread with the main points 🧵

#fatherhood #father #socialwork #familyscience

Aug 20, 2023 at 10:48amWeb
Show threadNadav Perez-VaisvidovskyAug 20, 2023
reviewing existing literature on fathers in family- and child-related interventions, I identify three main axes: the first focuses on giving voice to fathers',and telling the story of (mostly excluded) fathers; the second, on critically analyzing workers' discourse and identifying their biases and stigmas; the third analyzes father-specific programs to understand 'what works'.
Show threadNadav Perez-VaisvidovskyAug 20, 2023
The three axes, I claim, share several common gaps:
(1) insufficient attention to relationality - all the axes tend to focus on one actor, while ignoring the intricate matrix of interconnections which characterizes both families and welfare systems
Show threadNadav Perez-VaisvidovskyAug 20, 2023
(2) neglecting questions of agency - the field moves between objectification of fathers (e.g. seeing them as a risk or as a resource to families) to seeing them as excluded population. this leads to an almost total disregard to questions regarding their agency, such as: Can fathers that refrain from accessing the services be seen as excluded? Should workers prioritize reluctant fathers over mothers who require services? What burden does father engagement put on mothers?
Show threadNadav Perez-VaisvidovskyAug 20, 2023
(3) lack of unifying theoretical framework - many works in the field avoid using a defined theoretical framework. others use such a framework, but not in a way that enables connecting different projects into a coherent outlook.
Show threadNadav Perez-VaisvidovskyAug 20, 2023
As an answer to these three gaps, I offer theories of Care - mainly based on Mary Daly's recent theorization - and of Capabilities, based on Hobson & Fahlen and Yerkes developments to Sen and Nussbaum classical work.