All welcome!
(Please scroll down for Semester 2 seminars)
13th October (Tues, 12-1pm – Room: TBA)
Dr Rebecca Leach (Sociology, Keele University)
‘Generation and Consumption: Insights from the Baby Boomers Study’
28th October (Wed, 4.30-6pm – Room: TBA)
Prof. Dennis Smith (Social Sciences, Loughborough University)
‘Whatever Happened to Globalization?’
11th November (Wed, 4-30-6pm – Room: TBA)
Dr Dale Southerton (Sociology, The Morgan Centre, and
The Sustainable Consumption Institute, Manchester University)
Title: TBA
24th November (Tues, 12-1 – Room: TBA)
Dr Siobhan Holohan (Sociology, Keele University)
‘Representing the Mundane in Channel 4’s The Family’
8th December (Tues, 12-1pm – Room: TBA)
Dr Mark Featherstone (Sociology, Keele University)
'Living on the Edge in the Forgotten City: Utopia, Dystopia, and
Public Housing in Northern England'
9th February (Tues, 12-1pm – Room: CBA0.007)
Globalization and its Aftermath: Towards a New Sociology of Ageing
Chris Phillipson (RI Director, LPJ and LCS, Keele University)
17th February (Wed, 4-5.30pm – Room: CBA0.007)
Title: TBA
Anne-Marie Kramer (Sociology, Warwick University)
2nd March (Tues, 12-1pm – Room: CM0.12)
Flow, Enjoyment and High-Risk Autotelic Experiences
James Hardie-Bick (Sociology, Keele University)
16th March (Tues, 12-1 – Room: CBA0.007)
Moving Images: The Practices and Politics of Displaying
Family Photographs
Mark Davies (PhD, Keele University)
30th March (Tues, 12-1pm – Room: CM0.12)
‘Don't Rush to Mush’:
Infants, Food and Contemporary Childrearing Practices
Emma Head (Sociology, Keele University)
11th May (Tues, 12-1 – Room: CBA1.099)
Locating the Past in a Shifting Present:
Re-membering and Returning to District Six, Cape Town
Michelle Rickett (Centre for Social Genrontology, Keele University)
25th May (Tues, 12-1 – Room: CM0.12)
Title: TBA
Andy Zieleniec (Sociology, Keele University)
Showing posts with label Emma Head. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emma Head. Show all posts
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Friday, 25 July 2008
Bring back mothers?
By Emma Head
Sociologists have long been interested in the transition to motherhood. Perhaps the best known study of this important time in a woman’s life was Anne Oakley’s work Becoming a Mother (1981), based on in-depth interviews she conducted with women in the 1970s. Earlier this month (July 2008) the Modern Motherhood conference in London focused on first-time motherhood and reported the findings of two research projects, The Making of Modern Motherhoods project led by Professor Rachel Thomson and Dr Mary Jane Kehily (Open University) and Becoming a Mother project led by Professors Wendy Hollway (Open University) and Ann Phoenix (Thomas Coram Research Unit at the Institute of Education). Throughout the day various contributors made the point that while politicians and policy documents now tend to refer to the gender-neutral ‘parenting’, this doesn’t reflect the social reality as the bulk of caring for children continues to be carried out by mothers.
This is a point taken up in a new report from the National Families and Parenting Institute (NFPI) titled Listening to Mother: Making Britain Mother-friendly. The report states that “The language of parenting has not always equalised the relationship between men and women: it has sometimes masked inequalities which have not been properly thought through or tackled”. The NFPI report goes on to argue that talking about ‘parenting’ in such a generalised way obscures the particular needs of mother, such as the needs for support services in the period immediately after childbirth. Britain has a shortage of midwives and a review of NHS maternity services has identified “serious flaws” in care, including a lack of support for mothers who have given birth. The numbers of health visitors, a group who provide support and advice to new mothers, are also in decline. The report identifies the way that the transition to motherhood has a far greater effect on the lives of women, than becoming a father has on men.
So how important is language? Is it time to stop talking about ‘parents’ and to give fuller recognition to the ways that the roles of mothers and fathers do differ in contemporary Britain. Or would an emphasis on mothers serve to perpetuate the difficulties women are facing in getting men to take on more caring tasks and also be exclusionary to those fathers who are increasingly involved in the care of small children?
At Keele, the motherhood and parenthood agenda is a hot topic: modules on the changing nature of the family and parenting relationships are on offer at levels 2 and 3 on the undergraduate programme, as well as modules on parenting and consumer culture. We also offer advanced Sociology of the Family as part of our Masters' in Research in Sociology.
In our research, there are a number of activites relating to the shaping of modern motherhood and parenting: Lydia Martens has an ongoing interest in this field, with specific reference to the ways consumer cultures shape motherhood, babyhood and children; Emma Head is also working on parenting styles and motherhood; the two of them, with Rebecca Leach, are developing a new project in this field. Lydia has recently been awarded (with Pauline Maclaran in Marketing at Keele) an ESRC seminar series on Mothers, Markets and Consumption.
Sociologists have long been interested in the transition to motherhood. Perhaps the best known study of this important time in a woman’s life was Anne Oakley’s work Becoming a Mother (1981), based on in-depth interviews she conducted with women in the 1970s. Earlier this month (July 2008) the Modern Motherhood conference in London focused on first-time motherhood and reported the findings of two research projects, The Making of Modern Motherhoods project led by Professor Rachel Thomson and Dr Mary Jane Kehily (Open University) and Becoming a Mother project led by Professors Wendy Hollway (Open University) and Ann Phoenix (Thomas Coram Research Unit at the Institute of Education). Throughout the day various contributors made the point that while politicians and policy documents now tend to refer to the gender-neutral ‘parenting’, this doesn’t reflect the social reality as the bulk of caring for children continues to be carried out by mothers.
This is a point taken up in a new report from the National Families and Parenting Institute (NFPI) titled Listening to Mother: Making Britain Mother-friendly. The report states that “The language of parenting has not always equalised the relationship between men and women: it has sometimes masked inequalities which have not been properly thought through or tackled”. The NFPI report goes on to argue that talking about ‘parenting’ in such a generalised way obscures the particular needs of mother, such as the needs for support services in the period immediately after childbirth. Britain has a shortage of midwives and a review of NHS maternity services has identified “serious flaws” in care, including a lack of support for mothers who have given birth. The numbers of health visitors, a group who provide support and advice to new mothers, are also in decline. The report identifies the way that the transition to motherhood has a far greater effect on the lives of women, than becoming a father has on men.
So how important is language? Is it time to stop talking about ‘parents’ and to give fuller recognition to the ways that the roles of mothers and fathers do differ in contemporary Britain. Or would an emphasis on mothers serve to perpetuate the difficulties women are facing in getting men to take on more caring tasks and also be exclusionary to those fathers who are increasingly involved in the care of small children?
At Keele, the motherhood and parenthood agenda is a hot topic: modules on the changing nature of the family and parenting relationships are on offer at levels 2 and 3 on the undergraduate programme, as well as modules on parenting and consumer culture. We also offer advanced Sociology of the Family as part of our Masters' in Research in Sociology.
In our research, there are a number of activites relating to the shaping of modern motherhood and parenting: Lydia Martens has an ongoing interest in this field, with specific reference to the ways consumer cultures shape motherhood, babyhood and children; Emma Head is also working on parenting styles and motherhood; the two of them, with Rebecca Leach, are developing a new project in this field. Lydia has recently been awarded (with Pauline Maclaran in Marketing at Keele) an ESRC seminar series on Mothers, Markets and Consumption.
Thursday, 10 July 2008
Food waste on the agenda
By Emma Head Food waste is on the news agenda: Gordon Brown wants to ensure that households stop wasting food at a time when food prices are on the increase. Around 18% of food bought by British households is estimated to end up in the bin rather than eaten. This is not the first time a government has urged the public to be more thoughtful over food consumption. During the second world war posters urged people to make use of leftovers.
In the current fight against food waste, BOGOFs (buy one get one free offers) and 3 for 2s are being seen as a particular problem. This is a concern that has been raised by Steve Webb, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary and a feature in the Guardian recommends avoiding such offers as one tactic to cut down on food waste.
A few years ago I interviewed a young woman called Angela, who lived with her two year old daughter in a deprived area of a large city. I asked her to talk about where she did her food shopping and how she found managing her household budget. She told me she didn't really do a big food shop, as she didn't have enough money for this. In fact, she often missed meals as she had to prioritise feeding her daughter. Studies of families living through hard times throughout the twentieth century have tended to find that when money is tight family members usual get fed in the following order - father, children, mother. Sometimes Vicky got help with her food shopping from her Grandmother, who would look out for offers in the supermarket and on a weekly basis would bring her the 'free' items. So for Vicky, 3 for 2s and BOGOFs weren't about waste or global food shortages but had other meanings. They gave a reason for her grandmother to visit her and broke up the monotony of her day; they showed her that her Grandmother was thinking about her and her daughter; and they provided something unexpected to eat in a diet that didn't vary much.
Food is being wasted on a massive scale, but we need to ensure that any strategies to try and cut down on wastage don’t impact too heavily on those who are already struggling to feed themselves and their families adequately.
Emma Head is Lecturer in Sociology at Keele University. Her research explores lone parenting, work (paid and unpaid) care and motherhood, especially in the contexts of poverty, inequality and social exclusion. She teaches modules on the Sociology of Work and Research Methods.
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