It will concentrate on one proposed model for post-separation family life: shared residence (where children divide their family life in roughly equal measure between the two households of their separated parents [1] .
Shared residence has become increasingly complex, and has generated debates among judges, academics, pressure groups and policymakers in the UK and beyond [2]. The concept of shared residence is multi-faceted and can vary according to whether it is being considered as a family practice, a judicial decision, an administrative framework, an aspiration, an ideology or a political tool [3]. Empirical and theoretical research in Europe on shared residence is limited by a focus on lone parenthood in which designation of the non-resident parent as 'absent' can mask the extent to which non-resident parents (fathers and, increasingly, mothers) continue to engage in the lives of their children [4] .
References
[1] for prevalence see, for example, Skinner, C., Bradshaw, J. and Davidson, J. (2007), Child support policy: An international perspective, Research Report No. 405, Department for Work and Pensions: HMSO.
[2] see, for example, Rhoades, H. and Boyd, S.B. (2004) ‘Reforming Custody Laws: A Comparative Study’, International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 18, 119–46
[3 ]Masardo, A. (in press), ‘Negotiating shared residence: the experience of separated fathers in Britain and France’, in C. Lind, J. Bridgeman and H. Keating (eds) Regulating Family Responsibilities. Aldershot: Ashgate
[4] Masardo, A. (2009), ‘Managing shared residence in Britain and France: questioning a default ‘primary carer’ model’, in K. Rummery, I. Greener and C. Holden (eds) Social Policy Review 21: Analysis and debate in social policy, 2009, Bristol: Policy Press