Recorded on Wednesday 28 April 2021.
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.