Special Collection 26

Children and family dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa

Published 20 November 2019

This Special Collection – edited by Olivia Samuel and Véronique Hertrich – focuses on family environment and child socialization in sub-Saharan Africa. A main challenge is to go beyond the traditional family-network approach, centred on the household and the biological parents, and to consider the diversity of contexts and stakeholders involved in a child’s upbringing. The papers in this special collection explore the complexity and the dynamics of children’s family environment in different African contexts, focusing on coresidential kin and nonresident close kin, intergenerational exchanges, and polygamy. They address methodological challenges and present innovative approaches for analysing children’s family environments beyond the perimeter of close relatives and their influence on children’s well-being and care.

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