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‘Mothering and the New Politics of Parenting’ BSA Families and Relationship Study Group

Activity: Participating in or organising an event typesParticipation in workshop, seminar, course

9/05/2013

Over the last few decades the concept of ‘parenting’ as a distinct and measurable practice has taken on huge political significance. As globalisation and neoliberal economic restructuring policies advance discourses of individualism and self-responsibility it is parents, specifically mothers, that are held accountable for their children’s success or failure with regards to social (im)mobility, and in becoming ‘good citizens’. As part of a shift from welfare state to a social investment model the female dominated practice of childcare has been redrawn as an essential motor of meritocracy. Parenting interventions are now routinely imposed as solutions to longstanding social problems associated with poverty and inequality, ensuring disadvantaged mothers are implicated and targeted for regulation. Meanwhile an ideology of ‘intensive parenting’ has seeped into everyday culture profoundly re-shaping expectations and experiences of mothering in particular. This event seeks to explore current political and personal landscapes of mothering, highlighting the intersections and contours of gender, class, ‘race’/ethnicity, and sexuality on the new politics of parenting.

Event (Workshop)

Title‘Mothering and the New Politics of Parenting’ BSA Families and Relationship Study Group
Date9/05/13 → …
CityLondon
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom