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Care of the State

Relationships, Kinship and the State in Children’s Homes in Late Socialist Hungary

Palgrave Macmillan

Authors:

  • Demonstrates the usefulness of care as an analytical concept to open innovative perspectives on mutual cooptation and constructions of state, families, and individuals
  • Highlights the complexity and diversity of relationships based around care, demonstrating the ambivalence of kin relations
  • Increases scholarly understanding of Central European societies and state socialism more generally through the under-studied case of Hungary

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

About this book

Care of the State blends archival, oral history, interview and ethnographic data to study the changing relationships and kinship ties of children who lived in state residential care in socialist Hungary. It advances anthropological understanding of kinship and the workings of the state by exploring how various state actors and practices shaped kin ties. Jennifer Rasell shows that norms and processes in the Hungarian welfare system placed symbolic weight on nuclear families whilst restricting and devaluing other possible ties for children in care, in particular to siblings, friends, welfare workers and wider communities. In focussing on care practices both within and outside kin relations, Rasell shows that children valued relationships that were produced through personal attention, engagement and emotional connections. Highlighting the diversity of experiences in state care in socialist Hungary, this book’s nuanced insights represent an important contribution to research on children’s well-being and family policies in Central-Eastern Europe and beyond.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences, Bielefeld, Germany

    Jennifer Rasell

About the author

Jennifer Rasell received her Ph.D. in 2018 from the Institute for European Ethnology at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. From 2016 to 2018 she coordinated the research group Kinship and Politics at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld University, Germany. Her work explores the state, childhood, parenting and relatedness with an area focus on Hungary.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Care of the State

  • Book Subtitle: Relationships, Kinship and the State in Children’s Homes in Late Socialist Hungary

  • Authors: Jennifer Rasell

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49484-1

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-49483-4Published: 29 August 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-49486-5Published: 29 August 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-49484-1Published: 28 August 2020

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 169

  • Number of Illustrations: 7 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Social Anthropology, Sociology of Family, Youth and Aging, Political Sociology, Russian, Soviet, and East European History

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access