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When anxious mothers meet social media: WeChat, motherhood and the imaginary of the good life

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  • Meng, Bingchun

Abstract

In this article I have tried to unpack the anxiety of Chinese middle-class mothers through examining the dialectics of structural changes and discursive shifts. The theoretical premises are that, on the one hand, China’s highly compressed modernisation process has had a major impact on parenting arrangements and parenting ethos; on the other hand, the practice of mothering and the imaginary of motherhood have significant implications for social reproduction. Combining empirical materials collected through a social media platform, in-depth interviews and focus groups, I have teased out the classed imaginaries of good mothering and how these are subsequently linked to imaginaries of the good life.

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  • Meng, Bingchun, 2020. "When anxious mothers meet social media: WeChat, motherhood and the imaginary of the good life," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103232, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:103232
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Osama J. A. R. Abu Shair, 1997. "Privatization and Development," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-25374-6, December.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    WeChat; motherhood; good life; neoliberalism; class inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General

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