Exploring Family Practice: Parents’ Perspectives on Conditions of Everyday Life

This article explores family life at a time when young children and parents are increasingly subject to child welfare policy interventions. The intent is to use family targeted interventions as empirical focus as an opportunity to bring existing concepts from family sociology and social psychology into dialogue; specifically, Morgan’s concept of family practices and Holzkamp’s concept of conduct of everyday life, the latter emphasising subjective perspectives on everyday life conditions. This dialogue contributes to expanding and strengthening the analysis of the interrelatedness of family life and societal institutions such as child welfare services and early childhood education and care (ECEC) facilities. By integrating parents’ perspectives on the ‘doings’ of everyday family life, this article also contributes to theoretical discussions concerning the person–structure relationship by analysing the interrelatedness of parents’ subjective actions and the everyday life conditions that constitute the context for these actions.