‘Othering’ the unprepared: Exploring the foodwork of Brexit‐prepping mothers

Ben Kerrane, Katy Kerrane, Shona Bettany and David Rowe

Gender, Work and Organization, 2024, vol. 31, issue 2, 494-512

Abstract: We explore the foodwork performed by white middle‐class mothers in the United Kingdom who were preparing to feed their families in anticipation of post‐Brexit resource scarcity. We illustrate their laborious preparations (‘prep‐work’) as they stockpiled items (mostly food) in anticipation of shortages. We reveal tensions in how they envisaged how (and who) to feed. Analysis reveals how our (privileged, white middle‐class) participants enrolled ‘good’ motherhood into prep‐work and engaged in a new form of ‘othering’. Non‐prepping ‘(m)others’ were positioned as deficient, ‘bad’ parents due to failure to save children from post‐Brexit risk/hunger, and participants downplayed their own (classed and material) advantage in being able to prepare. By exploring their prep‐work accounts, we illustrate how they assumed a morally superior motherhood position to the non‐prepared underclass and make several contributions. First, we extend foodwork categories, recognizing additional foodwork of managing and hiding stockpiles (given stigma/ridicule surrounding prep‐work). Second, we illustrate the darker side of motherhood that prep‐work revealed, which clashes with elements of intensive motherhood ideology. Third, we illuminate the ‘othering’ of a new parental underclass: the unprepared.

Date: 2024
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