Good Mothers, Nations and Nationalisms

Cases from Lithuania, Russia and Sweden

The books chapters illuminate the roles of political and social actors engaged with renegotiating materialist politicssuch as grassroots birth activist movements and maternalist social policy campaignsas well as those defying militarism.

This book explores constructions of the good mother within diverse nations and nationalisms, focusing on three contexts grappling with distinct forms of demographic anxiety. Inspired by Sara Farris inquiry into femonationalism and utilizing maternalism and politics of care as critical theoretical instruments, the book analyses the evolving political and social expectations imposed upon mothers in Lithuania, migrant mothers, including postsocialist migrant mothers from Central Asia and Caucasus in Sweden, and women in the militarizing authoritarian Russian states construction of maternity within its traditional values agenda. It also probes both how good m