Foodwork and Foodcare in Hard Times: Mothering, Value and Values

In this paper we analyse the foodwork of mothers when feeding their families on low and reduced incomes. By exploring their accounts of food shopping and household budgeting, we argue that foodwork is intrinsically linked to other areas of social life and dominant values associated with ‘good mothering’. Through a careful consideration of the contexts and relations in which foodwork is valued, embedded and made meaningful we draw two key conclusions. First, we find that mothers’ foodwork is oriented towards avoiding devaluation and maintaining a level of respectability as opposed to accumulating cultural capital. Second, we introduce the concept of foodcare arguing that it potentially offers low income mothers an alternative to the logic of capital for their demonstration of self worth