The discursive construction of the fathers' positioning within family participation frameworks

The aim of this paper is to analyze how fathers position themselves within their everyday discursive practices at home. We consider the shift from a traditional father figure, defined and perceived as a provider, to an emerging collaborative one in order to explore the discursive acts of fathers’ positioning through the observation of the everyday activities of eight middle-class Italian families. Adopting the positioning theory and the discursive approach as guiding analytical concepts, we discuss how fathers position themselves as representatives and as mediators of the family and of its everyday activities. We propose a qualitative analysis of discursive interactions in order to show how Italian fathers position themselves as active partners in different activities at home, ascribing meanings to what they do with the other family members and with the researchers.