Kate Boyer and Justin Spinney

The more than human in becoming-families

This informal talk explored some of the myriad ways in which the more than human participates in or becomes enrolled in practices of parenthood, childcare and family-making.

Building on scholarship that has explored the role of consumption in forging maternal identities, the talk explored the practical, emotional and existential work that things and objects do in the work of parenting, care-giving and family-making, reflecting on the meaning of how different kinds of objects and things circulate through families and assemblages of care.

Short bios:

Kate Boyer is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography in the School of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University. She has written extensively about the social and spatial politics of early motherhood and breastfeeding and published the book: 'Spaces and Politics of Motherhood' in 2018 with Rowman and Littlefield Press. She lives in Bristol with her partner and 12-year-old son.

Justin Spinney is an urban cultural geographer and economic sociologist broadly interested in the intersections between mobility, embodiment, environmental sustainability and technology. 

Boyer, K. and Spinney, J. (2016). Motherhood, mobility and materiality: Material entanglements, journey- making and the process of ‘becoming mother’. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 34(6): 1113–1131.