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Understanding Parenting: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Organised by Dr Angela Davis and Dr Laura King

7th September 2012, University of Warwick


‘Understanding Parenting’ will bring together researchers, policy-makers and practitioners who work with parents and on issues of parenting. Through an examination of the themes of fertility and reproduction; disability; looked after children; and advice to parents, this conference will trace the history of contemporary debates surrounding parenting. The conference will facilitate inter-disciplinary discussion of how understandings and practices of parenthood have changed since the 1960s; the diverse experiences of parenting, including homosexual parents, single parents and those who adopt; and the cultural pressures on parents in the past and today. As such, the meeting will allow the formulation of key questions to be addressed in future meetings, and recommendations for policy-makers, emerging from insights of both practitioners and researchers in the field. Historical perspective is crucial here; by contextualising contemporary policy and practice, historians can enable a more rigorous use of history to support positive solutions for the future.