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Middle-class Mothers' Moralities and 'Concerted Cultivation

Class Others, Ambivalence and Excess

Bibliographic Data

ID2322350
AuthorsMaud Perrier (0000-0001-8531-5092, University of Bristol, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume47
Issue4
Pages655-670
Publication date2013-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0385 • E-ISSN: 1469-8684
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0038038512453789
OpenAlexW2148888738
LanguageEN
Citations received58
References cited31

Drawing on a small qualitative study of mothers in the UK, this article argues that although concerted cultivation and intensive parenting are legitimated as 'good' parenting, these discourses have uneven effects on middle-class mothers' moral identities. My contention is that by focusing too much on processes of capital accumulation and transmission, studies of parenting risk simplifying the contradictory effects of these discourses on middle-class parents' subjectivities. I argue that accounting for how power is enacted on as well as by middle-class mothers provides some resources for an account of contemporary parenting that better reflects the complexity and diversity of middle-class mothers' experiences, including their ambivalence about concerted cultivation and their fears about the excesses of the middle-class emphasis on education

Ambivalence · Class (philosophy) · Diversity (politics) · Epistemology · Middle class · Political science · Power (physics) · Social class · Sociology · Anthropology · Early Childhood Education and Development · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Social Work Education and Practice · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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Unique citing works58
Citations per year4,83
Citation span2014 - 2026 (13)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 54
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