Mothering the post-industrial city : Family and gender in urban re-generation

Marguerite Anna van den Berg

"Children and mothers play an important role in policy efforts to regenerate the city. This dissertation deals with this prominence of children and mothers in urban policies in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It departs from the observation that mothers, in particular, matter in urban policy making and the struggle of former industrial cities to reinvent themselves. I was curious about why mothers and children featured so very prominently in urban policies in Rotterdam and also how this resulted in policy practices and what was done in these practices. For this purpose, I did participatory, ethnographic research in a range or parenting guidance practices. I was interested in what goes on in the room. What happens when policy ambitions for the city enter a classroom, school kitchen, family home or community centre where "parenting guidance" is taking place? What do professionals such as teachers, pedagogues and social workers produce together with participating mothers? And how does this relate to imagined urban futures and the new post-industrial economy?"--p. 261.