Curtis Verity – Parenting and Foster Care: A Sociological Approach to the Emotional Bond

This PhD project, situated at the intersection of sociology, anthropology and law, aims to examine the issue of emotional bonds between parents and children and what it means to be a family during institutional care. The originality of this project lies in its approach to institutional care, which focuses on emotions within the context of institutional placement. To this end, a range of research methods and analytical approaches will be employed, including an analysis of the legal frameworks governing placement and the maintenance of family ties, as well as an ethnographic study, involving observation and interviews, in several facilities run by Les Apprentis d’Auteuil. Within this framework, the PhD student will aim to address several questions that will inform this research: How do children in care perceive their emotional relationship with their parents? In what ways do they identify this emotional bond in relation to their conceptions of what constitutes a family? In what ways is this parental and emotional bond governed by the law following recent amendments? In what forms does this parental bond manifest itself? Finally, what space is actually afforded to this emotional bond by the institution and social workers?