Surveying the Terrain—Realising the Potential of Researching with Young Families

This chapter presents a picture of the contemporary landscape in which families with young children are positioned, and the multiple interpretations of ‘family’. A rationale is offered for the value of engaging in researching with and about young families, including the recognition of children as significant agents within the domestic space of the family home, and other environments in which they are embedded. Contemporary understandings and constructions of families and their dynamic contexts are introduced, whilst noting the need for being critically aware of the dominant discourse that privileges particular narratives, especially those which evolve from specific contexts and paradigms. Chapter 1 of Forging frontiers draws attention to the idiosyncratic nature of ‘the family’ and reminds us that families are situated in contextual social-ecological systems.