Full Description
Spaces and Politics of Motherhood offers a fresh perspective on maternity based on original qualitative research from the United Kingdom and the United States. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, an analysis of parenting websites and policy analysis, this book presents a series of interlinking arguments about the role of space, place and matter in early motherhood and the processes by which mothers come to understand themselves as such.
Building on existing scholarship, Spaces and Politics of Motherhood considers motherhood through themes at the cutting-edge of social and feminist theory including: materiality and material agency; place and memory in the formation of maternal identity; issues relating to parenting in public, and the politics of combining breastfeeding with wage-work. It argues that motherhood is an achievement realised through myriad engagements with a range of human and non-human others, as well as through everyday interactions in public space which can be both emotional and political.
Contents
Introduction/ 1. Maternal Becomings: space, time and identity in early motherhood/ 2. Motherhood, Space and Politics with the World: spatial practice and material agency in maternal becomings (with Justin Spinney) /3. Agentic Breastmilk: distributed agencies of infant feeding/ 4. Breastfeeding in Public: affect, public comfort and the agency of strangers/ 5. Mothers Acting Back: claiming space through lactation advocacy ('lactivism')/6. Combining Care-work with Wage work: a consideration of the changing policy landscape/ Conclusion/ Bibliography/Index
