Unmasking the Care Fetish: Institutionalisation, Internalisation, and the Punitive Dimensions of Motherhood from the Social Reproduction Perspective

Abstract

This special issue grew out of the interdisciplinary conversations started at the conference “Thinking Through Motherhood: Images, Experiences and Narratives Across Time”, held at Vilnius University in January 2024. Organised by the MotherNet project – an EU-funded research network – the conference focused on how motherhood is defined, represented and experienced across history and into the future. The panels created a trace coined ‘a temporality of motherhood’ that took account of the fluctuating and also pluralistic nature of mothering experiences, in contrast to more rigid definitions that tend to essentialise motherhood and posit it as homogenous, static and innate. The scope of the conference was interdisciplinary, inviting colleagues from all disciplines to consider how their work interconnects with narratives of and about motherhood and how these narratives inform the practical and policy dimensions of personal and social issues.