Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction Biographical approaches to mothering: identities and lived realities
- 1 Becoming and being a Polish mother: narratives on the motherhood experience
- 2 ‘A good mother is a good mother and a good wife’: gender politics and mothering practice among older Iranian Muslim women
- 3 Exploration of mothering and shifting identities in Kenya
- 4 Biographies of Roma mothering in contemporary Czechia: exploring tapestries of multi-ethnic gendered identity in a marginalised social position
- 5 Identities and life choices of mothers in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in England
- 6 Giving voice to Irish mothers experiencing separation and divorce
- 7 Ideal, good enough and failed motherhood: how disabled Canadian mothers manage in hostile circumstances
- 8 Confronting meanings of motherhood in neoliberal Australia: six crystallised case studies
- 9 Unplanned breakdown of foster mothering: biographical perspectives on identity challenges of foster mothers
- 10 Non-mothers: identities, ambiguity, biography making and life choices
- Conclusion Exploring mothering in future biographical research: interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and new research agendas
- Index
Foreword
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 January 2024
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction Biographical approaches to mothering: identities and lived realities
- 1 Becoming and being a Polish mother: narratives on the motherhood experience
- 2 ‘A good mother is a good mother and a good wife’: gender politics and mothering practice among older Iranian Muslim women
- 3 Exploration of mothering and shifting identities in Kenya
- 4 Biographies of Roma mothering in contemporary Czechia: exploring tapestries of multi-ethnic gendered identity in a marginalised social position
- 5 Identities and life choices of mothers in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in England
- 6 Giving voice to Irish mothers experiencing separation and divorce
- 7 Ideal, good enough and failed motherhood: how disabled Canadian mothers manage in hostile circumstances
- 8 Confronting meanings of motherhood in neoliberal Australia: six crystallised case studies
- 9 Unplanned breakdown of foster mothering: biographical perspectives on identity challenges of foster mothers
- 10 Non-mothers: identities, ambiguity, biography making and life choices
- Conclusion Exploring mothering in future biographical research: interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and new research agendas
- Index
Summary
This co-edited book engages with biographical research approaches as applied to mothers’ lives, and the notion of mothering, and critically analyses key questions associated with economic and social inequalities, intersectionality, gender and identity, engaging with cultural discourses of what mothering means in different cultures and societies. The book engages with changing attitudes and approaches to mothering based on women's individual biographical experiences, illuminating how socially anticipated tasks of mothering shaped through interlinking state, media, religious beliefs and broader society are reflected in their identities and individual life choices. Through consideration of trust, rapport, reflexivity and self-care, this collection advances methodological practice in the study of the lives of mothers, carers and childless women.
This book extensively applies biographical and narrative research methods to mothering from international perspectives The book also critically examines issues pertaining to biographical research methods – what it means to undertake biographical research in studies on mothering and mothers’ lives, demonstrating novel methods in international methodological practice.
The chapters throughout this book engage with issues that are critically important in biographical research, including self-care, rapport, trust, reflexivity and self-reflection, showing how these processes shape and reflect narratives of mothering and research encounters with women in various social contexts.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Biographical Research and the Meanings of MotheringLife Choices, Identities and Methods, pp. xiPublisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2023