CPCS Spring Term Events 2026
In Spring Term 2026 we are taking a fresh look at intensive motherhood, with the help of early career colleagues based in Spain and Belgium
Join us 3-5pm on Zoom:
Wednesday 28th January
Intensive Mothering and the School Day in Spain: A Class Affair
Sandra Obiol-Francés from the Universitat de València will share findings about her research with mothers raising children in Spain.
The concept ‘intensive motherhood’ and much research using it has focussed on the Anglo-American context. In this seminar we are delighted to welcome Sandra Obiol-Francés from the Universitat de València, to share findings about her research with mothers raising children in Spain.
In Spain, the school timetable has been largely confined to the mornings since the 1990s. The school day was shifted from a schedule that included a lunch break to one that no longer does. One of the main arguments for this change has been to limit school hours in the mornings, which could allow children to spend more time with their families and take part in extracurricular activities. This transformation should affect how the children’s care is organized; however, no research has examined this issue, as attention has been focused on academic outcomes. Our purpose has been to evaluate this educational policy from a family perspective.
The aim of this seminar is to present the first results of our analysis on the impact of the continuous school day on family and care arrangements, and, by extension, on women’s available time. Through discussion groups with mothers and teachers, as well as in-depth interviews with mothers, we have observed the various family strategies for managing care on a continuous school day. Across mothers’ narratives, the ideal of good parenting emerges as an endless investment of time, financial, and emotional resources. The ways in which this ideal takes shape are strongly influenced by social class.
Sandra Obiol-Francés is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at the University of Valencia. Her research interests include families, mothering, care policies, and subjectivities.
Wednesday 18 March
Navigating motherhood online: understanding the role of momfluencers in the infant feeding journey of first-time mothers
Introduced by Ellen Mertens (Ghent University), with Dr Rebecca Steinfeld as discussant
Research about parenting cultures has often found a focus in the question of identity-work associated with feeding babies. Join us to revisit this issue with Ellen Mertens (Ghent University) who will share in insights about momfluencers, motherhood and infant feeding.
Ellen’s research explores how digital motherhood cultures shape contemporary experiences of infant feeding. Combining netnographic analysis of infant feeding-related content shared by momfluencers with qualitative diary data from pregnant women and first-time mothers, she examines both the messages circulating online and how mothers interpret and respond to them. Drawing on theories of neoliberal intensive parenthood and risk culture, her research explores how momfluencers frame breastfeeding as an individual responsibility, a site of risk management, and a marker of maternal competence, while the diary accounts reveal how mothers negotiate the emotional and identity-related tensions that arise when engaging with these idealized representations of motherhood and infant feeding. Together, these findings provide insight into the dynamic interplay between online content and maternal experiences, highlighting how digital narratives shape, constrain, and are interpreted within everyday parenting practices.
Ellen Mertens is a doctoral researcher in the Department of Communication Sciences at Ghent University. She studies contemporary motherhood in digital media, focusing on the role of momfluencers in an increasingly digital parenting culture.
Dr Rebecca Steinfeld is a political scientist and campaigner for reproductive choice. Her website is at: http://www.rebeccasteinfeld.com/
Book in here
Zoom link for joining