On paternal subjectivity: a qualitative longitudinal and psychosocial case analysis of men’s classed positions and transitions to first-time fatherhood

Abstract

Using Timescapes ‘Men as Fathers’ (MAF) project data, qualitative longitudinal (QL) and psychosocial case study approaches are showcased for studying the making of paternal subjectivity in and through time. The accounts of two men from self-defined ‘working’ and ‘middle-class’ backgrounds are explored, focusing on how their lines of flight as paternal subjects are shaped by tensions between a push towards new subjectivities and the pull of old discourses. The men’s vexed intergenerational inheritance of classed versions of masculinity is shown to be an energizing force which, in dynamic relationship to other social and discursive forces, produces shifting investments in motherly and affectionate models of fathering. Adopting QL and psychosocial lenses, and foregrounding the importance of men’s intergenerational experiences, positions and transitions as paternal subjects, provides insights into the broad sociocultural transformations in masculinity and fatherhood threading through the dynamics of individual lives.