Description
Book SynopsisSpaces 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.
Trade ReviewSpaces and Politics of Motherhood is an important contribution to geography and to feminist studies of motherhood. By bringing together empirical insights into the ways that space(s) matter to the experiences of mothering, with theoretical analysis from New Materialisms and attention to policy, Boyer offers us an innovative and potentially far-reaching addition to this burgeoning area of research. -- Rosie Cox, Professor of Geography at Birkbeck, University of London
A beautifully written, groundbreaking study of the challenges mothers face in seeking to feel at home in the world. Evidence-based, theoretically sophisticated, and animated by personal experience, it makes exciting advances in motherhood scholarship, asking: how can mothers be supported, if their care-work isn’t welcomed into the everyday spaces of our lives? This book is destined to become a classic. -- Fiona Giles, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications at the University of Sydney
Table of ContentsIntroduction/ 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
