Involved Fatherhood Among Roma Men: Class, Kinship, and Caring Masculinities in Post‐Socialist Hungary

Judit Durst
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Judit Durst: Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK / ELTE Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary

Social Inclusion, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: Scholarship on fatherhood has increasingly emphasised men’s practical and emotional involvement in childcare; yet, this research has largely focused on majority middle‐class populations. Roma fathers in Hungary are often stereotyped from a deficit view, and their practices remain underexplored. This article draws on two qualitative projects: (a) long‐term ethnographic fieldwork in a marginalised, lower‐class Roma settlement in Northern Hungary; and (b) narrative life‐history interviews with first‐in‐family graduate Roma fathers. Four case studies—two working‐class Roma fathers and two graduate Roma fathers—are presented as theoretical narratives. The working‐class fathers enact involved fatherhood through alternative forms of caring masculinities, in which physical protection, emotional expressiveness, pragmatic acts of provision (breadwinning), and kinship‐based solidarity are the main modes of fatherly care under economically precarious conditions. In contrast, the graduate fathers mobilise cultural capital, institutional knowledge, and reflexive parenting repertoires, as well as the transmission of a recast Roma identity, even in non‐residential contexts. The comparison shows that their practices are not dichotomous but form a continuum of involved fatherhood, shaped by classed resources, kinship ties, and the experience of racialisation. The study demonstrates that Roma fatherhood in post‐socialist Hungary is not absent nor deficient; rather, it is diverse and class‐stratified, ranging from emotionally and physically protective kinship‐based masculinities to intimate, education‐oriented practices, with each representing meaningful forms of care under conditions of racialised precarity. The article contributes to international debates on involved fatherhood, caring masculinities, and racialised minority fatherhood beyond middle‐class benchmarks.

Keywords: caring masculinities; intimate fathering; involved fatherhood; kinship and care; minority mobility; post‐socialist Hungary; racialised fatherhood; Roma fathers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11201

DOI: 10.17645/si.11201

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