Good enough morality? Divorce and postmodernity

Abstract

In this article we take issue with the way in which pro-family right thinking has managed to discursively construct divorce as an instance of immorality/amorality and to depict those who divorce as merely self- interested. We challenge this thinking by working with some of Bauman's ideas on moral competency and postmodernity and by draw ing on the work of Finch on 'doing the right thing' in families. To this conceptual discussion we add findings from an empirical project on how parents negotiate over their children on divorce. We suggest that these parents are 'morally competent' actors. We also criticize the current developments in family policy which see an industry of advice-giving as essential to allow ordinary people to make the 'right' moral decisions.