It's a Setup: Fathering from the Social and Economic Margins

The expectation for fathers to be more involved with parenting their children and pitching in at home are higher than ever, yet broad social, political, and economic changes have made it more difficult for low-income men to be fathers. In It's a Setup, Timothy Black and Sky Keyes ground a moving and intimate narrative in the political and economic circumstances that shape the lives of low-income fathers. Based on 138 life history interviews, they expose the contradiction that while the norms and expectations of father involvement have changed rapidly within a generation, labor force and state support for fathering on the margins has deteriorated. Tracking these life histories, they move us through the lived experiences of job precarity, welfare cuts, punitive child support courts, public housing neglect, and the criminalization of poverty to demonstrate that without transformative systemic change, individual determination is not enough. Fathers on the social and economic margins are setup to fail.

About the Author :
Timothy Black is Associate Professor of Sociology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He is the author and co-author of two award winning books: When a Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers On and Off the Street and On Becoming Teen Mom: Life Before Pregnancy, with Mary Patrice Erdmans. Sky Keyes has devoted his life to providing direct services to and advocacy for underrepresented and at-risk populations. Currently, he is working on the front lines at the Homeless Prenatal Program to support families hardest hit by the Bay Area's housing crisis. His past work includes police brutality, anti-war, prison, and labor activism; mental health counselling in an acute psychiatric unit; and housing case management for dually diagnosed clients in San Francisco's Tenderloin District.

Review :
Scholars of fathering, families, masculinity, policy, and inequalities will find much value in It's a Setup. Although several previous books have tackled similar subjects, Black and Keyes have staked new ground by providing a rich and compassionate account of how fathering from the social and economic margins takes shape in the context of neoliberal capitalism and poverty governance. This fresh and groundbreaking volume is likely the first book-length examination of fathering that takes the legacy of intersectionality seriously, foregrounding the complexity of marginalized men's lives. In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the mainstream recognition of Black Lives Matter protests, Black and Keyes also utilize structural frameworks and a more explicit critical language than previous fatherhood scholars. These new dimensions embed marginalized fathers in the very structures that have limited their life chances as parents, workers, and partners. Overall, this book makes a strong contribution to the literature on marginalized fathers ... This book is a must read for sociologists who study fathers and families at the economic margins and recommended for all sociologists who want a shining example of contextualizing individual hardships within broader economic and legal systems that are just not created for their success. This volume is a sophisticated study of fatherhood on the periphery of society and the quest of low-income men to be engaged and involved fathers, despite the many structural, social, and cultural barriers they experience. Black and Keyes present a well-researched, qualitative study examining the experiences of fatherhood among 138 marginalized men in Connecticut ... The authors thus disrupt the hegemonic discourse surrounding fathers as "sole provider[s]," which has permeated public policies and perceptions of fatherhood. They present a fuller picture of the socioeconomic factors shaping fatherhood, which demands a reconceptualization of the idea today.