Partnered fathers bringing up their mixed-/multi-race children: an exploratory comparison of racial projects in Britain and New Zealand

ABSTRACT

This article explores how fathers in couple relationships where their partner is from a different racial background understand bringing up their children. Drawing on a small-scale, in-depth comparison of fathers’ accounts in Britain and New Zealand, and using the analytic concept of racial projects, fathers’ activities towards and hopes for their children’s identity and affiliation are revealed as keyed into historically situated social and political forces. Particular national racial projects and histories of coloniser and colonised are (re)created and reflected in the various typifications (ideal orientations) informing the fathers’ racial projects. These might be concerned with mixed, single or transcendent senses of belonging, in individual or collective ways, each of which was in various forms of dialogue with race.

KEYWORDS:

• Mixed-race
• multi-race
• fathering
• racial projects
• Britain
• New Zealand

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Chamion Caballero for her invaluable contribution to that project and for consenting to my separate reanalysis of the data. I was based at the University of Otago during the Fellowship, and had the benefit of the encouragement and support of colleagues there, especially Anita Gibb and Martin Tolich. Thanks also to Dominic Edwards for facilitating fieldwork, and especially to the fathers who participated in the research and spoke about their lives. I would also like to acknowledge the referees of the submitted manuscript, who made helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Censuses collect data on ethnic group identification albeit these may overlap with racial categories.

2. Ethical approval was received from the FHSS University of Southampton Research Ethics Committee for the reanalysis of the UK data and the collection and analysis of the New Zealand data. Ethical approval for the collection and analysis of the New Zealand data was also granted by the New Zealand Ethics Committee.

3. The different sample sizes relate to the resources available for the studies. The British study was funded for two and a half years and involved three researchers. The New Zealand study was funded for three months and involved the author alone.

Additional information

Funding

I am grateful to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for funding the British study. I am also grateful to The Leverhulme Trust for funding the International Academic Fellowship that enabled me to collect data in New Zealand.