{"id":30097,"date":"2025-05-21T10:15:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T13:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clam.org.br\/en\/?p=30097"},"modified":"2025-07-09T10:25:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T13:25:43","slug":"article-published-on-parenting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clam.org.br\/en\/news\/article-published-on-parenting\/30097\/","title":{"rendered":"Article published on parenting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Article by researchers from CLAM\/IMS\/UERJ and REMA published in an international dossier on parenting addresses inequalities in the moralization of women mothers in contemporary Brazil<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professors from the Institute of Social Medicine at UERJ, Laura Lowenkron<\/a> and Camila Fernandes<\/a>, published the article \u201cMotherhood amidst reprimands and advice: Parenting and class in Rio de Janeiro,\u201d <\/a>in Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology<\/em>, published by the American Anthropological Association. Both authors are researchers at the Latin American Center on Sexuality and Human Rights (CLAM) and the Transnational Research Network on Dispossessed, Violated, and Violent Motherhoods (REMA). Access the full published article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article explores how processes of moralizing women mothers in contemporary Brazil reinforce structural inequalities. The analysis focuses on two forms of communication: reprimands and expert advice directed at mothers in two distinct social contexts in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Based on Camila Fernandes\u2019 fieldwork in a favela complex, the first case study examines how poor and racialized women are reprimanded by professionals at public daycare centers. Based on Laura Lowenkron\u2019s ethnographic research in a middle-class parents\u2019 WhatsApp group, the second study focuses on expert parenting advice circulated in the group during the Covid-19 pandemic. Through a comparison between reprimands and advice, the authors suggest that speech acts reveal how expert discourses carry out modes of moralization that not only shape motherhood experiences, but also differentiate them according to class, race, and territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article is part of a special issue of the journal entitled \u201cContested Parenting. Experts, Audiences, Selves,\u201d<\/em> organized by Heike Drotbohm and Konstanz N\u2019Guessan as a result of a seminar on the politics of \u201cgood parenting\u201d held at the University of Mainz, Germany, in 2022. Drawing on empirical research from different parts of the globe, the dossier addresses the topic of parenting through the intersection of three groups of actors: 1) the parents themselves, who deal with their own imaginations about parenting while facing expectations and role assignments of \u201cideal types\u201d of person; 2) the experts \u2014 professional or self-declared \u2014 who represent a central authority on how to observe, comment on, and, if necessary, intervene; 3) the audiences, which include not only (other) parents and experts, but also in-laws, neighbors, children, and any other observing member of an imagined community that seemingly watches and judges whether parenting is being carried out correctly, well, and appropriately. The collection of articles also highlights how gender, race, and class-based inequalities \u2014 morally charged \u2014 shape not only parental interventions and public policy goals, but also the moral and emotional dimensions of parents\u2019 identity work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The special issue includes the following articles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n