Hilde Danielsen is a Research Professor at Norce, Bergen.

I was googling research on parenting when I found the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies. I was looking for researchers I could collaborate with, and was so happy when Ellie Lee , Frank Furedi and Charlotte Faircloth at the centre agreed to take part in the research project we got funded  in Norway (‘Parenting Culture and Risk Management in Plural Norway‘). Together we arranged the conference, Parenting and Personhood: Cross-cultural perspectives on family-life, expertise, and risk management in Canterbury in 2016. That was such a highlight of my academic life, opening up so many possibilities, both for me and many others, who developed collaborations and publications after meeting at this event.

I find the concept of intensive parenting fitting and thought-provoking, coining a growing trend and opening it up for critical investigation. I think that the idea of intensive parenting could be developed further now, in a direction where it has more sensitivity towards class. Together with Synnøve Bendixsen I wrote several articles inspired by this research, among them a piece analyzing how intensive parenting is a norm promoted by schools in Norway and how this norm is met by some migrants parents.

The publication of Parenting Culture Studies in 2014 was ground breaking and extremely inspiring! It pinpointed and foreshadowed ways of acting and thinking that have become even more dominant after its release in 2014 and offered new, original and important ways of reflecting on parenting.