Commodification of Motherhood. An ethnographic study about aesthetical practices from professional Mombloggers

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Irene Götz
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 443309846

The planned project is aimed at investigating female micro-entrepreneurship and seeks to examine the recently emerging phenomenon of Momblogging within a German digital scene. The ethnographic study will contribute to revealing and depicting logics and practices of contemporary work and labour within the so-called creative industries. Based on the concept of „aesthetical capitalism“ (Reckwitz, 2012) this project addresses the commodification of motherhood and related practices of utilizing and commercializing maternal and familiar daily lives in a „creative“ and „aesthetical“ manner. Considering post-Fordist logics of removing and blurring the boundary between work and life from a gender-analytical perspective, the research examines how motherhood has been transformed into a starting point of entrepreneurship, which exploits a displayed lifestyle of motherhood. In doing so, female bloggers share stylized pictures and images of motherhood and family life via their blogs. Following an actor-centered approach, the female perspectives are to be centralized and prioritized. Maternal entrepreneurs’ motivations and legitimizations as well as conflicts and inconsistencies will be ethnographically investigated within a context of prevailing ideas of working mothers. By exploring and reflecting their daily negotiations of merging the (conflicting) needs of aesthetical work and family shelter, the project sets out to discuss the observation of a “new normal” (Tylor and Luckman, 2018), which refers to the emerging process of „normalizing“ aesthetical, yet precarious work in creative industries and digital economy. In doing so, the outlined research will not only contribute to the ethnography of labour but also discuss disciplinary connections to studies of gender, motherhood and, last but not least, digitalization.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants