1. Militant Lactivism? Attachment Parenting and Intensive Motherhood in the UK and France has
been released by Berghahn Books as part of their Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality series (50% discount and further info here: https://www.berghahnbooks.com/extras/docs/flyer/FairclothMilitant_9780857457585.html) This
is based on my PhD research with 'attachment' mothers in London and Paris, exploring their accounts of long-term breastfeeding. These mothers talk about their decision to continue
breastfeeding, sometimes for periods of several years, as the “natural thing to do”: “evolutionarily appropriate,” “scientifically best,” and “what feels right in their hearts.” Through a theoretical focus on knowledge claims and accountability, the text
frames these accounts within a wider context of “intensive parenting,” arguing that parenting practices – infant feeding in particular – have become a highly moralized affair for mothers, practices which they feel are a critical aspect of their “identity work.”
The book investigates why, how, and with what implications some of these mothers describe themselves as “militant lactivists” as well as reflecting on wider parenting culture in the UK and France.
2. Parenting in Global Perspective: Negotiating ideologies of Kinship, Self and Politics has also recently been published by Routledge as part of their Relationships and Resources
series (further info and 20% discount on the attached flyer). This collection has been co-edited by me, Diane Hoffman and Linda Layne with the aim of exploring the the spread of the 'new parenting culture' from a cross-cultural perspective. The volume features
contributions from a range of anthropologists and sociologists working in Euro-American settings as well as Turkey, Chile, Brazil and beyond to look at how an expertise, skill-based approach to parenting has been accommodated, rejected or revised. The volume
presents a critical perspective, which positions parenting as a global ideology that intersects in a variety of ways with the political, social, cultural and economic positions of parents and families. Particular themes include the structural constraints to
'good parenting' (both in terms of class, immigration and reproductive technologies), the relationships between intimate family life, policy making and nationhood, and parenting and/as adult 'identity work'.
