What is it about?
The work of mothers in the home is sometimes understood as a symptom of an increasingly privatised society. Yet many mothers perform environmental and caring labour that could be understood as activist -- if it was collectivised. In this paper, I propose that mothers connecting through webforums to experiment with nappy-free elimination communication forms of hygiene are part of a hybrid activist collective working around a number of key activist concerns: sustainable consumption; healthy attachment; balancing care; and sharing knowledge.
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Why is it important?
We need to appreciate the important work that mothers do, and understand the way they might see their work as activism for a better world.
Perspectives
I spent a lot of time talking to people who practice elimination communication in Australia, New Zealand and China, as well as practicing this with my own children. I find many of our understandings of mothers' work problematic, and wanted to take seriously the work of mothers trying to work towards different kinds of environmental and social futures.
Dr Kelly F Dombroski
University of Canterbury
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Hybrid activist collectives: reframing mothers’ environmental and caring labour, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, September 2016, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/ijssp-12-2015-0150.
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