Search

Populations of foster homes, like other populations of social actors, change over time in diverse ways. New foster homes are opened. Existing foster homes undergo life-cycle changes in composition and internal functioning. This article seeks to contribute in a more direct way to an understanding of the dynamics of foster care. Using data from a population of foster homes affiliated with a children's aid society in the regional municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth, Ontario, it investigates several arguments that might help account for the observed pattern of foster home entries into the child welfare system in the time period 1968-90. In particular, we focus on two processes that might be related to the pattern of entries: change in external social, political, and economic conditions, and interpellation processes, that is, change in overall number of foster homes and in the demand for service. This study is the first step in disentangling the complexities of the dynamics of the ecology of foster homes.