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Towards Interdependence: Using slings to inspire a new understanding of parental care

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>30/09/2022
<mark>Journal</mark>Children's Geographies
Issue number5
Volume20
Number of pages14
Pages (from-to)674-687
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date19/07/21
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Based on empirical research with parents who carry their children in slings, I propose what I hope will be a new and more progressive way of understanding of parental care relationships, where ideas of dependence/independence are replaced by those of interdependence. Through engagement with feminist literatures which stress relationality between humans and non-humans, I suggest that it may be helpful to broaden our understanding of parental care from an exclusive focus on the mother–child relationship in order to recognise a wider range of actors as participating in this process – including children themselves and the more than human world. Crucially, I also consider the potential for care to flow in multiple directions within these relationships.