Being in Fosterage

This book explores the diverse experiences of children and youth in fosterage in Ghana, and the place of fostered children within family networks. It's an analysis of how they move within and between family networks, and maintain and create family relations and bonds of relatedness. With empirical examples it is shown how the factors of age, gender and socio-economic status, and the place of the fostered children and youth within the family network all affects to what extent the fostered have possibilities to impact on their own and others life. The analysis of the children’s agency is based on the concept of navigation, where the focus is on the children and youth’s choices and actions within a changing environment where they continuously consider their short term and long term needs as well as dreams. The concept of ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ agency is used to acknowledge the agency of this navigation, but also to take into consideration the cultural as well as economic aspects that limit the agency of children and youth in Ghana.