Duration: 01.02.2019 - 31.01.2022
Director: Prof. Dr. Sylka Scholz
Project co-workers: Nadine Nebyie Baser, Kevin Leja, Iris Schwarzenbacher
The crisis of social reproduction identified by sociologists forms the starting point of this project. In public discourse this crisis is addressed primarily as a problem that affects women, such as the dilemmas faced by working women when trying to reconcile work and family life or the issue of childlessness among female academics. In the academic context, too, the topics of care and care work are associated primarily with the female gender, whereas the role of the male gender in the crisis of reproduction generally remains underexamined.
The project “Caring boys?” therefore addresses issues of masculinity and care (of others and of oneself). It explores the ideas of male youngsters about care for self and others, as it is during the adolescent phase that responsibility for others, i.e. a generative perspective, is substantially developed and opportunities for changes in gender relations arise. Sociological studies in masculinity describe boys above all as being prepared to take risks and as being drawn toward competitiveness. They appear to show no care for themselves or others. It is possible, nonetheless, to formulate the hypothesis that contemporary images of masculinity lead to a situation in which other, contrasting modes and practices of masculinity are not represented or debated, i.e. that boys and men do not mention care of self and others to other people, even if these are an important factor in their own lives.
The research project focuses on the perspective of boys and uses qualitative methods to examine ways of speaking about experiences of care of self and others. In doing so it draws upon knowledge from youth work by incorporating relevant pedagogical ideas into the methodological setting. The project pursues two goals: first, that of expanding the state of academic knowledge about the care enacted by boys and, second, that of developing theoretical concepts of care, generativity and masculinity in relation to youth as a life phase. This is connected to the question of how care can be integrated into constructions of masculinity over the long term. In this way the project contributes toward society’s efforts to deal with the crisis in social reproduction.
Project-related publications
Ruby, Sophie/ Scholz, SylkExternal linka (2018): Care, Care Work and the Struggle for a Careful World from the Perspective of the Sociology of Masculinities. External linkIn: Aulenbacher, Brigitte/ Gutiérrez-Rodríguez/ Liebig, Brigitte (Hrsg.): Care and Care Work. Special Issue of Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie ÖZS, Jg. 43, H. 1, S.73-83External link [PDF, 207 KB]External link