The Managerial Family? Family Care Work in Germany and Spain

Abstract

Abstract This article engages with scholarly debates on the emergence of market logics in family life. By deploying qualitative data from couple interviews in Germany and Spain, we show how the existence of a so-called managerial family is salient among interviewees in both countries. Couples might introduce weekly family planning meetings or follow investment strategies when organizing childcare and housework. Drawing on the theoretical concept of moral economies, the article adds a macro-level institutional perspective to this picture of entrepreneurial family life by linking how couples justify their managerial practices to macro-level moral ideas and the institutional setup in which they live.