Parents and the moral economies of childcare access in Germany : struggling for places and legitimate selves / Thilo Ernst ; DFG Research Group 1612, Project "Distinction in Institutional Settings in ECEC"

Abstract

Employing a moral economy perspective, this paper explores access to center-based childcare in Germany both in the majority sector of tax-funded centers and the niche of high-priced commercial providers. Drawing on parents’ narrations of their choice of childcare centers, it will be shown how access logics of each sector, policy and practice in various welfare state arenas, parents’ specifc situathions and ambitions, and local provision together constitute contexts that provide or deny moral authorhizathion of parental claims to childcare places and specifc identities. The shortage of publicly funded childcare, managed by selectively granting access, gives rise to moral struggles over the legitimacy of one’s own and others’ needs, ways of living, and ambithions; these struggles can be avoided by turnhing to the commerchial sector. Consequently, in accessing publicly funded or commercial childcare, parents unequally gain access to resources to realize not only their practical ambitions but highly valued selves.