Parenting among wealthy Danish families: a concerted civilising process

Abstract

This article explores the parenting practices of wealthy Danish families and offers insight into the workings of dominant parenting norms within contemporary Danish society. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among 15 families living north of Copenhagen, Denmark, this article identifies the parenting strategies of people with ample resources. Possessing strong economic capital, these families do not have to sell the full labour potential of the mother and are also able to afford help at home. This gives them free time that can be invested in developing the minds and talents of their children, as well as in socialising them and creating a network. Whereas existing Bourdieu-inspired family research emphasises the transmission of cultural capital as significant for members of the dominant classes, this article highlights social capital as a central aspect of wealthy families' parenting strategy. This latter can therefore be characterised as a ‘concerted civilising strategy’ where families – in cooperation with preschools and primary schools – not only cultivate the children academically but also train their sociability.

Keywords:

• parenting
• the dominant classes
• social capital
• civilising
• reciprocity
• distinction

Notes

1. A child's age is sometimes placed in parentheses after his/her name.