Description: While motherhood as an area of scholarship has been significantly advanced with extensive global theorizations, examinations of the thinking and experiences around mothering emerging adults are still in need of deeper interrogation. This edited volume addresses this gap with a rich array of empirical, reflective and creative pieces that speak to the contextual, emotive or affective, discursive and performative aspects of mothering. The volume is framed around the theoretical concepts of normative motherhood, maternal regret, silence and maternal/social transitions. The contributing authors bring to light new and innovative analyses on subjects including, but not limited to, eco-disconnect, non-proximate and e-mothering, neurodiversity, abuse, mental health issues and mothering, tiger mothering and racialized understandings of mothering emerging adults. The findings revealed within this volume broaden our understanding of the often-unexamined latter period of the motherhood arc.
Review Quotes: Theorizing Motherhood and Emerging Adulthood: Representations, Explorations and Contentions brings together a multiplicity of perspectives and lived experiences to delve into the under-theorized topic of mothering teens and young adults. This thought-provoking and timely collection is a must-read for anyone engaged in practices of mothering and those who are interested in gaining a fuller understanding of the emergent scholarship on motherhood. - Kathy Mantas, Professor, Schulich School of Education, Nipissing University; co-editor, Middle Grounds: Essays on Midlife Mothering; editor, Grandmothers & Grandmothering: Creative and Critical Contemplations in Honour of our Women Elders Theorizing Motherhood and Emerging Adulthood: Representations, Explorations and Contentions brings together a diverse collection of works that adeptly and passionately explore mothering emerging adults, a much-neglected topic in motherhood studies. Each contributor offers a unique perspective, creating a volume that honors diversity of experience and a thought-provoking approach to mothering emerging adults. With its depth and breadth, this volume provides works of academic rigor while also being accessible to a wide audience of readers. A compelling and bountiful addition to motherhood studies. - Dr. Marcella Gemelli, Sociology Teaching Professor, T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics Arizona State University