Practices of Childcare in Urban China - The Making of Competent Mothering in Beijing

Abstract

Practices of Childcare in Urban China. The Making of Competent Mothering in BeijingOver the past decades, China's one-child policy and broader modernization project has paved the way for scientific approaches to childcare. While the emphasis on expert-led childcare promotes new practices of mothering, it also acts as a differential between those who are able to carry out these practices and those who are not. Taking its point of departure in the concept of intersectionality and in post-structural theories of subjectification, this article explores how mothers and child professionals in contemporary Beijing draw boundaries between those considered competent and incompetent in childcare. By analysing their stories on infant feeding, the article finds that older generations and rural people are demarcated as lacking new knowledge and thereby positioned as incompetent, while well-educated mothers are positioned as highly competent. However, the article also suggests that these positions are not stable but contain potentials for transformation. KEYWORDS Infant feeding, quality (suzhi), expert-led childcare, motheringMichala Hvidt Breengaard is a PhD fellow at Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen and at the Sino-Danish Centre, a Chinese-Danish research initiative. Her research project explores the practices of mothering that followed the one-child policy in urban China.

A critical examination of epistemological congruence between intersectionality and feminist poststructuralism: Toward an integrated framework for health research

“…It is noteworthy to mention that the majority of these have neglected to discuss the philosophical underpinnings of the two approaches, or to address their congruence or lack thereof in any way, as has been elaborated upon in this article. Breengaard (2015), in their study exploring childcare practices in urban China and how competent mothering is conceptualized, and Staunæs (2003), in their study of the lived experiences of gender and ethnicity of students in a multiethnic school, combine intersectionality with a poststructural theorization of subjectification, providing compelling examples of how such an integrated framework allows for analysis to shift between micro‐ and macrolevel processes that act in experiences of marginalization and the meaning that individuals ascribe to these experiences. Elaborating upon the labeling of mothers as competent or incompetent, Breengaard (2015) suggests that the substantiality of these labels or categories is of less importance than “how categories are assigned meanings, how boundaries are drawn between these categories and how that helps us to understand what is desirable in terms of mothering and childcare” (p. 50), the latter representing poststructural considerations in the author's analysis of identity categories.…”

“…Breengaard (2015), in their study exploring childcare practices in urban China and how competent mothering is conceptualized, and Staunaes (2003), in their study of the lived experiences of gender and ethnicity of students in a multiethnic school, combine intersectionality with a poststructural theorization of subjectification, providing compelling examples of how such an integrated framework allows for analysis to shift between micro-and macrolevel processes that act in experiences of marginalization and the meaning that individuals ascribe to these experiences. Elaborating upon the labeling of mothers as competent or incompetent, Breengaard (2015) suggests that the substantiality of these labels or categories is of less importance than "how categories are assigned meanings, how boundaries are drawn between these categories and how that helps us to understand what is desirable in terms of mothering and childcare" (p. 50), the latter representing poststructural considerations in the author's analysis of identity categories. Chappell (2014) uses a poststructural framework to explore how youth living with disabilities construct their sexual identities and centers the final discussion on the intersectional identities of participants that emerged spontaneously through analysis.…”