This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Cook, D. T. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Semantic Provisioning of Children’s Food

Commerce, care and maternal practice

Rutgers University-Camden, USA, dtcook{at}camden.rutgers.edu

Drawing upon in-depth interviews with mothers in the US about feeding their young children, this article examines how consumer culture — broadly construed — constitutes part of the indispensable context of mothering practices. The argument put forward is that mothers not only provide food and sustenance for their children, but necessarily encounter, engage with and make use of commercial meanings of foodstuffs as part and parcel of the caring work they accomplish while providing food and meals. The concept of ‘semantic provisioning’ is meant to capture the meaning-making labor of mothers as it arises in sometimes contentious negotiations with children over ‘proper’ and ‘appropriate’ foodstuffs and meals. The approach offered seeks to demonstrate how commerce, sentiment, caring and children’s subjectivities interweave at the level of practice.

Key Words: care • children • consumption • food • motherhood • provisioning

Childhood, Vol. 16, No. 3, 317-334 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0907568209335313


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?