Pecuniary sensitivity in narratives about foster care

The fact that foster parents receive a fee and pay for expenses is not questioned in today´s social child care. Still, money is sensitive.

The media can criticize the motives of foster parents by highlighting financial gains in cases of neglect, and the municipalities (which pay for the care) emphasize other values than the monetary.

This project analyzes the varying meanings of money in foster care of children and young people in Sweden, with a particular focus both on the discourse within the social services and consulting companies, and on foster parents and their personal narratives.

The purpose is to study in detail the meanings of money in today’s child care and inside the recruitment practices of foster parents.The project is based on a cultural analytical perspective that draws attention to how money symbolizes both the value of good care for the needy and a morally delicate or even polluting aspect.

The sociologist Viviana Zelizer, who have shown how money is often defined as corrupt in intimate spheres, forms the major theoretical basis, in combination with Georg Simmel’s contrasting view. The research design is divided into two phases.

First we will analyze documents from relevant organizations and associations, and then we will conduct observations of training days and association meetings for family homes, together with qualitative interviews.

About 40 interviews with foster parents will be conducted, as well as about 25 interviews with representatives of foster care associations, recruiting organizations and representatives of the social services.The project aims to expose sensitive but essential issues that can be crucial for successful recruitment of family homes, for which there is a great shortage.

The ambition is to shed light on how economic and social dimensions are entwined in today’s foster home placement.