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‘It feels right in my heart’: affective accountability in narratives of attachment

Faircloth, Charlotte (2011) ‘It feels right in my heart’: affective accountability in narratives of attachment. Sociological Review, 59 (2). pp. 283-302. ISSN 0038-0261. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-954X.2011.02004.x) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:34405)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2011.02004.x

Abstract

This article makes a contribution to discussions around ‘affect’ in the social sciences (Clough and Halley, 2007; Connolly, 1999; Massumi, 2002). It emerges from a research project involving a network of mothers – in London – who breastfeed their children to ‘full term’. Typically, this would be up to the age of three or four, though ranged, in this case, to between one and eight years old. For many women, the most fundamental reasoning in their decision to breastfeed to ‘full term’ is that it simply ‘feels right.’ The article therefore explores anthropological approaches to the ‘feelings’ that embodied experiences generate, as revealed in the accounts and practices of the people we work with (whether at the physiological, emotional or moral levels). It considers various means of describing the feelings experienced by women during of long-term breastfeeding – such as ‘hormones’, ‘instinct’ and ‘intuition’– but ultimately argues for a theoretical framework of ‘affect’ to incorporate best the combined physiological and moral aspects of ‘doing what feels right in my heart,’ so critical to women's perceptions of themselves as mothers.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/j.1467-954X.2011.02004.x
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Mita Mondal
Date Deposited: 25 Jun 2013 11:33 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:11 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/34405 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Faircloth, Charlotte.

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