Book Description

An increasing number of families around the world are now living apart from one another, subsequently causing the defining and redefining of their relationships, roles within the family unit, and how to effectively maintain a sense of familial cohesion through distance. Edited by Maria Rosario T. de Guzman, Jill Brown, and Carolyn Pope Edwards, Parenting From Afar and the Reconfiguration of Family Across Distance uniquely highlights how families--both in times of crisis and within normative cultural practices--organize and configure themselves and their parenting through physical separation. In this volume, readers are given a unique look into the lives of families around the world that are affected by separation due to a wide range of circumstances including economic migration, fosterage, divorce, military deployment, education, and orphanhood. Contributing authors from the fields of psychology, anthropology, sociology, education, and geography all delve deep into the daily realities of these families and share insight on why they live apart from one another, how families are redefined across long distances, and the impact absence has on various members within the unit. An especially timely volume, Parenting From Afar and the Reconfiguration of Family Across Distance offers readers an important understanding and examination of family life in response to social change and shifts in the caregiving context.