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TITLE:
Children’s Perspectives on the Meaning of Money in Postdivorce Families

AUTHOR(S):
Gry Mette Dalseng Haugen

DOCUMENT TYPE: Article

Gry Mette Dalseng Haugen is a visiting scholar at the Center for Working Families during fall 2000 to summer 2001. She is a research fellow at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondhem, Norway.

Working Paper No.

ABSTRACT:
In this paper I examine and theorize complex relations and trade-offs among time, money, and love, arguing that children’s viewpoints can illuminate the question of money in postdivorce families in new and insightful ways. The analysis is inspired by ideas about economic sociology put forward by Marcia Millman and Viviana Zelizer. I also draw connections to “cultures of care” as discussed at the Center for Working Families at the University of California, Berkeley. I argue that children’s points of view challenge the traditional sociological division between money and love as two separate spheres. By focusing the meaning of money, and how money becomes a currency for both love and care, I make the argument with both empirical examples and theoretical discussion. I argue that theories of care and economic sociology are useful approaches for understanding the meaning of money in postdivorce family contexts.