Book Reviews: Redefining Fatherhood, The Invention of the Passport. Surveillance, Citizenship and the State, Comparative Social Policy: Concepts, Theories and Methods, Risk, Surveillance Society: Monitoring Everyday Life, Sounding Out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life

Nancy Dowd, a Professor of Law at the University of Florida, leaves the reader in no doubt as to her position on fatherhood. She writes: 'My core thesis is that the redefinition of fatherhood must center around the nurture of children' (p. 157). In the first part of this carefully argued book, she considers sociological and social psychological evidence dealing with the conduct and context of fatherhood in the United States. (Apart from some brief references to Sweden and some comparative social anthropology, she rarely strays outside her own country). The overall conclusion is that while most men become biological fathers, 'fathers parent less than mothers' (p. 1) although there are some considerable variations and sources of tension. Thus she recognises some evidence of a narrowing gap between men and women in the home and the labour market and points to evidence that suggests that men and women, in roughly equal proportions, both experience a sense of conflict between home and work. Nevertheless the overall picture is far from optimistic and changes in family and household living, including increasing rates of divorce and remarriage and co-habitation, often accentuate the relatively marginal involvement of fathers. Dowd also considers Black and Hispanic fathers and stresses the need to look beyond the stereotypes of pathology and machismo. There is also a brief, but useful, section on gay fathers. Anyone wishing to get a good clear overview of much of the recent American literature on fathering will find this section especially useful although some discussion of methodological issues might have been helpful. The second section, dealing with the current state of law in relation to fathers and fatherhood is equally valuable, especially for the non-specialist. Here she makes it clear that, generally speaking, the law is concerned with fatherhood, the status of being a father, rather than with the practices of fathering. Key points of reference are, or have been, the marital status of the father, the growing significance of biological fatherhood (and a 'more aggressive paternity determination' (p. 120) and the emphasis on economic support within the familiar provider ideology. This discussion is wide-ranging