EXPERIMENTS WITH PARENTHOOD

Recent policy changes in the area of family law have promoted changes in the organisation of the post-divorce family. These shifts place emp hasis on consensual joint parenting after divorce and emphasise agreem ent rather than conflict between parents. In addition, these policy ch anges have given a new status to fatherhood and seek to maintain relat ionships between men and children. These policy shifts, as well as the social changes that underlie them, have been the focus of work by Bec k (1992). Here we consider (1) how parents are actually negotiating pa renthood in the light of this policy experiment; and (2) how pertinent Beck's thesis appears to be by drawing on the results of a qualitativ e research project which has interviewed sixty parents who have divorc ed or separated since the new legislation came into effect.