Parenting as a Public Problem in a Neoliberal Era: A Changing Regime in France?

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, an explicit parenting support policy has made its way onto political agendas in Europe. This policy responds to a growing political demand to avoid the failure of the parental educational mission and “new social risks” for children. To educate parents to carry out their own role, improve their “competence”, and control their practices, corresponds to the construction of “parenting” as a public problem and the defence of a “parental determinism,” mobilizing different knowledge and empirical results. In our paper, we argue that the policy process that led to current parenting support policies is the outcome of a long process that imposes an explanation for the reason of this revival. We argue that we could be facing a new parenting regime in France.