Doctoral Dissertation Research: Women's Child Support Claims and Household Dynamics

博士论文研究：妇女的子女抚养费索赔和家庭动态

• 批准号: 1322544
• 负责人: Adam Ashforth
• 金额: $ 1.8万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-15 至 2015-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1322544&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Women; Child

University of Michigan doctoral candidate Brady G'sell, under the supervision of Dr. Adam Ashforth, will examine the role of women's child support claims in remaking household dynamics and how child support policy shapes women's political identities. In South Africa, nearly 5% of the country's national budget funds a child support grant which has become the central poverty alleviation tool. This proposal follows women in the city of Durban as they seek support in various forms from not only the state grant, but also churches, family members, NGOs, and fathers. These sources of support demand that women embody different personae (e.g., the good citizen, the caring mother) to justify their entitlement. This research asks how these diverse self presentations shape women's relationships with support sources and how the received resources affect relationships within the household. Over 12 months of field research, G'sell will utilize a variety of qualitative methods. This will involve (1) participant observation and analysis of women's support seeking interactions; (2) interviews with women, extended family, fathers, and staff at NGOs, government offices, and other institutions that offer women support; and (3) content analysis of a selective sample of popular print media, legislative debates around child support policy, and child support court cases since 1960 to track salient themes and their longitudinal resonances in national imagination.By locating this study in South Africa, this research offers a unique insight into broader social issues in a global context where state assistance plays an increasingly critical role. It considers how the grant figures as one strategy among many for procuring child support, placing it in a larger network of familial, institutional, and community relations. This research will reveal the unintended consequences of state policy on family relationships, household structure, and marriage practices and will encourage such considerations in policy design and implementation. The research contributes to the training of a doctoral student in anthropology.

密歇根大学博士生布拉迪·戈塞尔将在亚当·阿什福斯博士的指导下，研究女性子女抚养费申请在重塑家庭动态方面的作用，以及子女抚养费政策如何塑造女性的政治身份。在南非，近5%的国家预算为儿童抚养费提供资金，这已成为主要的扶贫工具。这项建议遵循德班的妇女，她们不仅从国家拨款，而且从教堂、家庭成员、非政府组织和父亲那里寻求各种形式的支持。这些支持来源要求妇女体现不同的人格(例如，好公民、体贴的母亲)，以证明她们的权利是合理的。这项研究询问这些不同的自我展示如何塑造女性与支持来源的关系，以及所获得的资源如何影响家庭内部的关系。在12个月的实地研究中，G‘sell将利用各种定性方法。这将涉及(1)参与者观察和分析妇女寻求支持的互动；(2)对妇女、大家庭、父亲和提供妇女支持的非政府组织、政府办公室和其他机构的工作人员的访谈；以及(3)对自1960年以来流行的印刷媒体、围绕儿童抚养费政策的立法辩论和儿童抚养费法庭案件的精选样本的内容分析，以追踪突出的主题及其在国家想象中的纵向共鸣。通过将这项研究设在南非，本研究为在国家援助发挥越来越重要的作用的全球背景下对更广泛的社会问题提供了独特的见解。它考虑如何将赠款作为获得子女抚养费的众多战略之一，将其置于一个更大的家庭、机构和社区关系网络中。这项研究将揭示国家政策对家庭关系、家庭结构和婚姻习俗的意想不到的后果，并将鼓励在政策设计和实施中考虑这些因素。这项研究有助于人类学博士生的培养。