Problematizing Classed Identities in Fatherhood: Development of Integrative Case Studies for Analysis and Praxis

This article analyzes the discourse and practices of two men from different life circumstances punctuated by race, class, education, occupation, number of children, relational history, and familial background. The authors create a new data analytic technique, the integrative case study, that juxtaposes excerpts and analyses of these fathers’ interview data in imagined conversational space through poststructuralist feminist lenses. The authors foreground identity struggles that emerge in their discussions of their home and work lives, enactments of fatherhood, and strategies for managing work—life balance. Although the authors do not claim that these men are representative of the groups for which they report membership, they note the ways in which their language and embodied identity performances influence and are influenced by their portrayals.