Contemporary grandparenting : changing family relationships in global contexts / edited by Sara Arber and Virpi Timonen.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

A new look at grandparenting / Virpi Timonen and Sara Arber -- Part one. Grandparents responding to economic and family transformations. Transformations in the role of grandparents across welfare states / Katharina Herlofson and Gunhild O. Hagestad ; The wellbeing of grandparents caring for grandchildren in rural China and the United States / Lindsey Baker and Merril Silverstein ; Grandmothers juggling work and grandchildren in the United States / Madonna Harrington Meyer ; Solidarity, ambivalence and multigenerational co-residence in Hong Kong / Lisanne S.F. Ko ; Grandparenting in the context of care for grandchildren by foreign domestic workers / Shirley Hsiao-Li Sun -- part two. Grandparent identities and agency. Being there, yet not interfering : the paradoxes of grandparenting / Vanessa May, Jennifer Mason and Lynda Clarke ; Grandparental agency after adult children's divorce / Virpi Timonen and Martha Doyle ; Grandfathering : the construction of new identities and masculinities / Anna Tarrant ; Understanding adolescent grandchildren's influence on their grandparents / Alice Delerue Matos and Rita Borges Neves ; Social contact between grandparents and older grandchildren : a three-generation perspective / Katharina Mahne and Oliver Huxhold ; Grandparenting in the 21st century : new directions / Sara Arber and Virpi Timonen.

"Grandparenting in the 21st century is at the heart of profound family and societal changes. It is of increasing social and economic significance, yet many dimensions of grandparenting are still poorly understood. Contemporary Grandparenting is the first book to take a sociological approach to grandparenting across diverse country contexts and combines new theorising with up-to-date empirical findings to document the changing nature of grandparenting across global contexts. In this highly original book, leading contributors analyse how grandparenting differs according to the nature of the welfare state and the cultural context, how family breakdown influences grandparenting, and explore men's changing roles as grandfathers. Grandparents today face conflicting norms and expectations about their roles, but act with agency to forge new identities within the context of societal and cultural constraints. Contemporary Grandparenting illuminates key issues relevant to students and researchers from sociology and social policy, including in the fields of family, childhood, ageing and gender studies"--Publisher description.