IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/103232.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

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

Author

Listed:
  • 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.

Suggested Citation

  • 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
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/103232/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Osama J. A. R. Abu Shair, 1997. "Privatization and Development," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-25374-6, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arndt, Channing & Benfica, Rui & Thurlow, James, 2011. "Gender Implications of Biofuels Expansion in Africa: The Case of Mozambique," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 1649-1662, September.
    2. repec:dgr:rugsom:01a21 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Megginson, William Leon, 2005. "The Financial Economics of Privatization," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195150629.
    4. Thomas Vendryes, 2014. "Peasants Against Private Property Rights: A Review Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 971-995, December.
    5. Bouquet, Emmanuelle, 2009. "State-Led Land Reform and Local Institutional Change: Land Titles, Land Markets and Tenure Security in Mexican Communities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1390-1399, August.
    6. Diao, Xinshen & Roe, Terry L. & Doukkali, Rachid, 2002. "Economy-wide benefits from establishing water user-right markets in a spatially heterogeneous agricultural economy," TMD discussion papers 103, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    7. O'Toole, Conor M. & Morgenroth, Edgar L.W. & Ha, Thuy T., 2016. "Investment efficiency, state-owned enterprises and privatisation: Evidence from Viet Nam in Transition," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 93-108.
    8. Molden, David & Sakthivadivel, Ramasamy & Samad, Madar & Burton, Martin, 2005. "Phases of river basin development: the need for adaptive institutions," Book Chapters,, International Water Management Institute.
    9. Isabel Lambrecht & Monica Schuster & Sarah Asare Samwini & Laura Pelleriaux, 2018. "Changing gender roles in agriculture? Evidence from 20 years of data in Ghana," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(6), pages 691-710, November.
    10. Belkhir, Mohamed & Ben-Nasr, Hamdi, 2016. "Labor protection and the privatization or partial privatization method," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 305-322.
    11. Worku, Gebeyehu, 2005. "Has Privatization promoted Efficiency in Ethiopia?: A comparative Analysis Of Privatized Industries vis-a vis State Owned and other private Industrial Establishments," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 9(2), pages 132-132, May.
    12. Meinzen-Dick, R. & Nkonya, L., 2007. "Understanding legal pluralism in water and land rights: lessons from Africa and Asia," IWMI Books, Reports H040685, International Water Management Institute.
    13. Daphna Hacker, 2010. "The Gendered Dimensions of Inheritance: Empirical Food for Legal Thought," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(2), pages 322-354, June.
    14. Mathur, Ike & Banchuenvijit, Wanrapee, 2007. "The effects of privatization on the performance of newly privatized firms in emerging markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 134-146, May.
    15. Meinzen-Dick, R. & Nkonya, L., 2005. "Understanding legal pluralism in water rights: Lessons from Africa and Asia," IWMI Books, Reports H038746, International Water Management Institute.
    16. Bogart, Dan & Chaudhary, Latika, 2015. "Off the rails: Is state ownership bad for productivity?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 997-1013.
    17. Cantos, Pedro & Campos, Javier, 2005. "Recent changes in the global rail industry: facing the challenge of increased flexibility," European Transport \ Trasporti Europei, ISTIEE, Institute for the Study of Transport within the European Economic Integration, issue 29, pages 1-21.
    18. Estache, Antonio & Gonzalez, Marianela & Trujillo, Lourdes, 2002. "What Does "Privatization" Do for Efficiency? Evidence from Argentina's and Brazil's Railways," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 1885-1897, November.
    19. Klaus Deininger & Songqing Jin, 2008. "Land Sales and Rental Markets in Transition: Evidence from Rural Vietnam," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 70(1), pages 67-101, February.
    20. David Parker & Colin Kirkpatrick, 2005. "Privatisation in Developing Countries: A Review of the Evidence and the Policy Lessons," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(4), pages 513-541.
    21. Clarke, George R.G. & Cull, Robert & Shirley, Mary M., 2005. "Bank privatization in developing countries: A summary of lessons and findings," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(8-9), pages 1905-1930, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:103232. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.