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- Convenors:
-
Tine Davids
(Radboud University)
Emma Emily de Wit (VU University)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 26 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Ideas on the future are expressed through expectations and hopes concerning perceived possibilities for change. This panel discusses intersections of motherhood (political, militant, racialised, queer, non-human) in the way they function as sites of transformation, resistance, opportunity and hope.
Long Abstract:
Ideas on the future are always expressed within the context of expectations and hopes concerning perceived possibilities for change. With the current panel, we aim to draw specific attention to the role of various intersections of motherhood (political, militant, racialised, queer, non-human) in the way they function as sites of transformation, resistance, opportunity and hope. On the one hand, motherhood has proven to figure as part of normative, disciplining and biopolitical mechanisms, pivotal in stressing values of national identity and belonging, the private and the public, responsibility and care. On the other hand, (militant) motherhood has inspired subversion and was key in processes of collective action against gender-based violence and/or in favour of peace consolidation. Both as normative and as well as part of resistance, 'maternalism' has been critiqued for emphasising essentialist notions around gender.
How can we talk about motherhood(s) and mothering, working against "essentialist" constructs, and explore its transformative potential, especially in times of increased neoliberalism, polarisation, disintegration and divide? As seen more recently, in the context of the COVID pandemic putting an increasing caregiving burden of women and mothers, but also in relation to current issues of migration, reproductive health, the Anthropocene and 'Intimate Citizenship', there is a need to revisit the way motherhood figures and mothers participate in both private- and public spheres of meaning-making. We invite participants to discuss both historic and current representations of motherhood and mother work, in relation to transformation and the potential for social change.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 26 July, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
Return migrant mothers in Mexico enact transnational motherhood through practices that create U.S. citizens from children in a transnational context. Mothers’ “acts of citizenship” break with the established status and habitus of citizenship and challenge the boundaries of political communities.
Paper long abstract:
How do the hopes and practices of returned migrant mothers challenge the exclusionary effects of the nation-state? How do these mothers question the normative ideas of the political community and upset established scales of claiming rights? Based on ethnographic research in Central Mexico among return migrant mothers, I argue that transnational motherhood is enacted through mothering practices that create citizens from children in a transnational context for two countries simultaneously. Return migrant mothers, who lived as undocumented migrants in the United States, are active subjects engaging in processes of constructing citizens by countering the constant undermining pressures of “illegality” and normative ideas of the nation-state and political communities. Not only do their actions point to new dimensions in our understanding of transnational motherhood, but they also open up new possibilities for the “politics of belonging”. By encouraging U.S. citizen children to practice and maintain their English skills in rural and peri-urban Mexico, mothers shape their children’s futures, attempting to position them favorably in the transnational context in which they are being raised. Motherhood shapes how return migrant mothers are contesting political exclusion and claiming spaces for their children from a marginal position outside—geographically, socially, politically—the U.S. nation-state. By developing the substantive elements of citizenship, return migrant mothers countered the effects of racism that erode the citizenship rights of racialized subjects. Their “acts of citizenship” break with the established status and habitus of citizenship, opening up new possibilities for transforming the boundaries of political communities and membership.
Paper short abstract:
This research explores the life story narrative of a Muslim migrant woman living in Belgium and investigates the intersections of migration, motherhood, religion, and racialization in her everyday life.
Paper long abstract:
Narratives of motherhood in diasporic contexts have shown that experiences of migrant motherhood are affected by a complex array of factors. In Belgium, the public discourses around migrant women’s integration into society and motherhood are saturated with stereotyped imagery of women as non-active members of the society. Women’s reproduction is racialized and viewed as burdensome on the economy. This research focuses on the life story narrative of a Muslim migrant woman living in Belgium and investigates the intersections of migration, motherhood, religion, and racialization in her everyday life. Life story narratives reflect elements of individual and agentic aspects of lifecourse as well as the effects of historical socio-political structures. The paper is as much an attempt to discuss dominant discourses on motherhood and their link to migrant integration and citizenship discourses as it is to illustrate migrant mothers’ agency and practices of citizenship enactment.
Paper short abstract:
This paper focuses on the intersection of human and nonhuman motherhood in India. It argues that by relating to nonhuman mothers (earth, animals, rivers, and goddesses), human mothers create a powerful sense of local, national and civic belonging to Bharat Mata, Mother the Nation.
Paper long abstract:
This paper focuses on the intersection of human and nonhuman motherhood in India. It describes how dominant and accepted interpretations and practices of motherhood in India transcend the human by including the natural and the spiritual world of earth, trees, animals, and rivers as well as all kinds of mother goddesses associated with that natural world. The paper argues that by relating to nonhuman mothers (who both dwell in place and transcend that place), human mothers create a profound sense of local, national and civic belonging.
In the immense republic of India - the seventh largest country in the world and covering 29 states with a vast diversity of people, landscapes, climates, ethnicities, religions and cultural traditions –women as mothers primarily experience intimate feelings of belonging to the patrilineal family, the village and the local landscape. However, through their religious practices of nature pilgrimage and goddess worship, they also connect to the regional and national level of the modern nation-state. The nation of India herself is perceived as a mother and a goddess: Bharat Mata, Mother the Nation. The national icon shows the goddess with a lion and a flag, suggesting a dense relationship between Mother India’s anthropomorphic form and the political map of India (Eck 2012:28). The proposed paper will focus on married Hindu women in Rajasthan and explore how women’s religious practices and reciprocal relationships of care with nonhuman mothers help them to construct narratives of civic engagement and national belonging to the nation-state.
Paper short abstract:
This paper reveals the trajectories of young Chinese mothers, their perceptions of modern motherhood values, and individual practices of autonomy by analyzing profound transformations at both family and societal levels in urban China.
Paper long abstract:
The long-standing Chinese philosophy of self-cultivation has dovetailed remarkably with the neoliberal ethics of pursuing for self in contemporary China, that one is not only successful but is also better able to manage emotional and social life. When it comes to parenting in urban settings, parents are required to take charge of their mental health and the development of knowledge to nurture children’s long-term development. In this regard, it is interesting to see that young Chinese mothers are often anxious and uncertain about how to balance between individual desires and social expectations facing a hopeful but uncontrollable future ahead for themselves and their children. Based on in-depth interviews with 43 Chinese women in urban China in 2019, this study reveals an increasing level of maternal anxiety and stress promoted by the dominant discourse of “good” mothering: “scientific mothering” (kexue yu’er). This discourse demonstrates the reasons why young Chinese women perceive today’s childrearing as more challenging and overwhelming that includes the rise of “experts’ authority” as the only “correct” information, self-managed childcare market and information overload in the digital age. These Chinese women make meaning of modern parenting, experience personal growth and demonstrate resilience that help them navigate challenges in motherhood. By exploring the contextual conditions of modern motherhood experiences, this study hopes to make visible the underlying structural issues which so far have acquired limited institutional attention.