Anxieties about father absence and the so-called ‘crisis of fatherlessness’ appear to have taken on a renewed significance and sway in the post-2008 recession and austerity contexts. Such anxieties typically implicate working-class men, perpetuating stereotypes that they are most likely to be uncaring, feckless and indifferent to family life. As with other accounts of low-income life, these representations have become widespread and ‘‘overburdened’ with powerful and unspoken assumptions’ (MacDonald, 2008, 236), yet they are often underpinned by limited or problematic interpretations of evidence.
University of Lincoln, College of Social Science Research
Dr Anna Tarrant, University of Lincoln, School of Social and Political Sciences