Continuity and change in a qualitative longitudinal study of fatherhood: relevance without responsibility

Issues of time and change are foregrounded in qualitative longitudinal research (QLL1) and are considered here in the context of contemporary fatherhood. From a wider sample of 46 men interviewed as part of the QLL Timescapes network, we draw on two case studies of men who became fathers for the first time in 2000. This paper considers the men’s relationship to involvement and the linked concepts of exclusion and redundancy, terms which emerged from the data and changed over time in the men’s accounts. We seek to emphasise the value of QLL methods for providing a more complex understanding of the lived experience of life transitions and their longer‐term implications, contrasting this with existing studies offering a ‘snapshot’ approach.