ABSTRACT

The increased family diversity is a major global trend. Although family configurations are also diverse in contemporary Finland, it has been argued that Finnish family policies and institutional understanding of family life continues to focus on the heteronormative two-parent family with a native Finnish background. To address this issue, we analysed Finnish family discourses through qualitative interviews with early childhood education and care administrators (n = 47), applying a discourse analytic framework. Our results suggest that families are discussed through two divergent but interwoven discourses, i.e. the discourse of ordinary families and that of diverse families. The former focuses on heteronormative two-parent native-born Finnish families, perceived as ‘ordinary’ and familiar, and the latter on, especially, LGBTIQ and immigrant families, perceived as ‘new’, confusing and strange. We demonstrate how diversity is produced discursively by othering families that diverge from the ‘ordinary’. These discourses, reflecting wider cultural understandings of family, may have implications for both families and institutional practices. We conclude by arguing that the conventional and heteronormative understanding of family remains entrenched in Finnish family discourses.

摘要

家庭多样性的增加是一个主要的全球趋势。尽管当代芬兰的家庭结构也多种多样，但有人认为，芬兰的家庭政策和对家庭生活的制度理解继续关注具有芬兰本土背景的异性恋双亲家庭。为了解决这个问题，我们通过对幼儿教育和保育管理人员的定性访谈分析了芬兰的家庭话语（n= 47), 应用话语分析框架。我们的结果表明，家庭是通过两种不同但又相互交织的话语来讨论的，即普通家庭的话语和多元化家庭的话语。前者侧重于被视为“普通”和熟悉的异性恋双亲芬兰本土家庭，后者尤其关注被视为“新”、令人困惑和陌生的 LGBTIQ 和移民家庭。我们展示了与“普通”不同的其他家庭是如何通过话语产生多样性的。这些话语反映了对家庭更广泛的文化理解，可能对家庭和制度实践都有影响。最后，我们认为对家庭的传统和异规范理解在芬兰家庭话语中仍然根深蒂固。