Researching the Intersection between Collective Identity and Conceptions of Post-separation and Divorced Fatherhood: A Case Study Fathers For Justice, Fathers For Just Us, or Fathers are Us?

Robert A. Kenedy

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.2.2.06

Authors

Robert A. Kenedy York University, Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.2.2.06

Keywords:

Fathers rights movement, collective identity, participant observation, interviews, content analysis

Abstract

This article explores the methodological implications of investigating the collective identity of Fathers For Justice (FFJ). More specifically, a three-pronged approach of employing participant observation, interviews, and content analysis is assessed as the basis for understanding FFJ’s collective identity. This methodological approach reveals that meanings and practices related to post-separation and divorced fatherhood as well as the importance of children are a significant dimension of a FFJ collective identity. I conclude that an important part of the FFJ collective identity is not based on these activists perceiving themselves as self-serving (Fathers for Just Us), but as those seeking equality in terms of being recognized as continous parents after separation and divorce (Fathers are Us).

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Robert A. Kenedy, York University, Canada

Robert A. Kenedy is a sociologist at York University, Canada. He has been studying identity issues since 1984 with much of his research focusing on collective identity, as well as ethnic communities and identity formation. He has written the book Fathers for Justice: The Rise of a New Social Movement in Canada as a Case Study of Collective Identity Formation. His recent work examines ethnic identity within several different immigrant groups in the city of Toronto. Dr. Kenedy has examined divergent issues related to ethnic communities in Canada such as civic identity among immigrants, as well as Jewish identity and Diasporas.

References

Arendell, Terry (1992a) “After Divorce: Investigations into Father Absence.” Gender & Society 6(4): 562-586.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/089124392006004003

Arendell, Terry (1992b) “The Social Self as Gendered: A Masculinist Discourse of Divorce.” Symbolic Interactionism 15(2): 151-181.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1992.15.2.151

Babbie, Earl (1989) The Practice of Social Research. 4th edition. Belmont, California: Wadsworth.
Google Scholar

Babbie, Earl and Lucy Benaquisto (2002) The Fundaments of Social Research. 1st edition. Toronto: Thomson.
Google Scholar

Bertoia, Carl and Janice Drakich (1993) “The Fathers Rights Movement: Contradictions in Rhetoric and Practices.” Journal of Family Issues 14(4): 592-615.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/019251393014004007

Bertoia, Carl (1998) “An Interpretative Analysis of the Mediation Rhetoric of Fathers’ Rightists: Privatization Versus Personalization.” Mediation Quarterly 16(1): 15-32.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.3890160104

Boyd, Susan (1989) “From Gender Specificity to Gender Neutrality? Ideologies in Canadian Family Law.” Pp. 126-157 in Custody and the Politics of Gender, edited by C. Smart and S. Sevenhuijen. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Coltrane Scott and Neal Hickman (1992) “The Rhetoric of Rights and Needs: Moral Discourse in the Reform of Child Custody and Child Reform Laws.” Social Problems 39(4): 400-421.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.1992.39.4.03x0046t

Crean, Susan (1988) In the Name of the Fathers. Toronto: Amanita.
Google Scholar

Dominus, Susan (2005) “The Fathers’ Crusade”. The New York Times Magazine, May 8, pp. 26-33, 50, 56, 58.
Google Scholar

Drakich, Janice (1989) “In Search of the Better Parent: The Social Construction of Ideologies of Fatherhood.” Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 3(1): 69-87.
Google Scholar

Escobar, Arturo (1992) “Culture, Economics, and Politics in Latin American Social Movements.” Pp. 62-85 in The Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy and Democracy, edited by A. Escobar, and S. Alvarez. Boulder: Westview.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429496301-6

Eyerman, Ron and Andrew Jamison (1991) Social Movements: A Cognitive Approach. Cambridge: Polity.
Google Scholar

Gairdner, William (1990) The Trouble with Canada. Toronto: Stoddart.
Google Scholar

Harris, Scott (2000) “The Social Construction of Equality in Everyday Life.” Human Studies 23: 371-393.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005684130032

Kenedy, Robert (2004/5) Fathers for Justice: The Rise of a New Social Movement in Canada as a Case Study of Collective Identity Formation. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Caravan Books.
Google Scholar

Melucci, Alberto (1989) Nomads of the Present. London: Hutchinson and Radius.
Google Scholar

Melucci, Alberto (1995) “The Process of Collective Identity.” Pp. 41-63 in Social Movements and Culture, edited by H. Johnston and B. Klandermans. London: UCL Press.
Google Scholar

Mills, Charles Wright (1959) The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Mottl, Tahi (1980) “The Analysis of Countermovements.” Social Problems 27(5): 620-635.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/800200

Pichardo, Nelson (1997) “New Social Movements: A Critical Review.” Annual Review of Sociology (23): 411-430.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.23.1.411

Sauvé, March (1993) Personal communication. September.
Google Scholar

Shibutani, Tamotsu (1987) Society and Personality: An Interactionalist Approach to Social Psychology. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction.
Google Scholar

Touraine, Alain (1981). The Voice and the Eye: An Analysis of Social Movements. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar

Touraine, Alain (1988) Return of the Actor: Social Theory in Post-Industrial Society. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Google Scholar

Zald Mayer and Bert Unseem (1987) “Movement and Countermovement Interaction: mobilization, tactics, and State Involvement.” Pp. 319-336 in Social Movements in an Organizational Society, edited by M. Zald and J. McCarthy. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.
Google Scholar