Being ‘Cared For’ and Growing Up in Shanghai: A Study of Adolescent Girls in Chinese Context.

Xu, Qiong (2014) Being ‘Cared For’ and Growing Up in Shanghai: A Study of Adolescent Girls in Chinese Context. In: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2014, 26th - 29th August 2014, London.

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Abstract

The concept of care depends on how people define it; it is also a concept which is developing over time (Moss and Brannen, 2003). According to Tronto (1994), the concept of care consists of several components: caring about, taking care of, care-giving and care-receiving. Traditionally, children were perceived as less developed, morevulnerable, and less competent than adults (Waksler, 1991). Therefore, they are often the care receiver. Meanwhile, the parents are the authority who takes care of them. The home therefore is an important spatial site for reconstruction of parent-child care relationships. This paper explores father and their daughters’ negotiation over girls’ spatial autonomy during adolescent years in a rapid changing society China. A multi-method research design was employed: four focus groups conducted in schools, a questionnaire survey with girls (N=767) and their fathers (N=599), and eight pairs of semi structured interviews carried out separately with daughters and their fathers. The study will focus on two areas of girls’ spatial use around home: going out and the Internet use. Although fathers are the care giver and have the authority to control their children’s activities, it is often not well received by their children. The study shows that Chinese adolescents often challenge the traditional way of constructing parent-child care/power relations when they adopt different strategies in their daily lives, which is similar in many research in the west (Valentine, Holloway, & Bingham, 2000).

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