Standby Mothering

Temporalities, Affects, and the Politics of Mobile Intergenerational Care

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6080809
AutoresEarvin Charles Cabalquinto (0000-0001-7269-0184, Deakin University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen18
Número3
Páginas358-376
Fecha de publicación2020-07-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Intergenerational Relationships (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1535-0770 • E-ISSN: 1535-0932
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/15350770.2020.1787049
OpenAlexW3089528699
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas40

In this paper, I showcase how left-behind mothers in the Philippines use digital communication technologies in delivering care to their overseas adult children in Melbourne, Australia. As part of a broader research project on transnational family life, the findings were drawn upon in-depth interviews, visual methods, a simple participant observation, and field notes taking and analysis. The study deployed a mediated mobilities lens, paying close attention to the different forces that shape the provision of intergenerational care through mobile device use. Building upon a critical analysis of the digitalization of intergenerational relationships in a transnational context, I coin the term ‘standby mothering.’ This conception encapsulates the femininized, ubiquitous, networked, and ambivalent intergenerational care practices that are experienced and negotiated by distant mothers. On the one hand, mobile device use enables left-behind mothers to deliver emotional and practical caregiving. On the other hand, everyday temporal conditions and technological barriers impede the provision of intergenerational care. Communicative constraints are constantly managed through various tactics, ensuring the sustenance of transnational relationships. By interrogating the contradictory outcomes of transnational caregiving, I underscore the politics of mediated mobilities in a digital society. Here, the mobilization of gendered, networked, and differential care practices is influenced by uneven structural and even socio-technological dimensions. Ultimately, this paper elucidates a critical stance on re-examining the provision of informal, gendered, and networked care practices

Ambivalence · Care work · Mobilities · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Sustenance · Temporalities · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Psychology · Social Psychology