31st October 2024, 3PM-4PM (UTC+01:00) join via link: aarhusuniversity.zoom.us/j/64730402002

Presented by: Firouz Gaini, professor of anthropology at the Department of History and Society at the University of the Faroe Islands. With a long and impressive career, he has centred his research on the themes of island studies, migration, youth, fatherhood, and social change and has written extensively on the matters. 

What characterizes contemporary Faroese fathers’ fathering styles compared to yesterday’s practices seen from young people’s narratives? At the turn of the century, “active caring fatherhood” became “culturally more accepted” in Europe (Eerola 2015). This father, the ‘new man’ of the global North, represents “a softer, more sensitive and caring individual. […] the ideal partner for the modern, liberated woman” (Edley and Wetherell 1999: 181). Drawing on an intergenerational approach giving the youth generation the opportunity to be part of the conversation on Faroese fatherhood and changed family life, a more nuanced understanding of care, culture and parenthood takes shape. This presentation is based on data from the project Faroese Fatherhood in Transition: Exploring everyday life, family relations, and masculinity across two generations of men in contemporary Faroe Islands (2018–2022).