Alison Jane Clarke UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON Thesis Submission for PhD. in Social ...

268 Pages·2011·15.31 MB·English

THE PRACTICE OF THE NORMATIVE:
the Making of Mothers, Children and Homes in north London
Alison Jane Clarke
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON
Thesis Submission for PhD. in Social Anthropology
SEPTEMBER 2001
PAGES 164 TO 178 AND
266 TO 269 ARE MISSING
IN THE ORIGINAL
BOOK
Thesis Abstract
The thesis comprises ethnography ofalternative provisioning in a range ofhouseholds
on a street in North London. It considers the alternative (non-formal retail) means by
which goods are acquired and exchanged. The areas ofinquiry include gift- giving, mail
order catalogues, network sales schemes, second-hand goods, nearly new 'jumble' sales
and self-provisioning. Challenging polarised models ofthe household and the market,
the gift and the commodity, the thesis reveals how alternative modes ofconsumption are
used to generate and contest value in everyday practice.
In particular, the study focuses on the activities ofwomen and the ways in which social
networks are constituted around specific types ofacquisition and material culture. These
activities include the swapping ofsecond hand baby goods, the provisioning of
children's parties and gifts, the decorating ofthe home and the use ofcommercial
network sales schemes revolving around fashion, cosmetics and housewares. Aesthetic
practice and modes ofacquisition are considered in the context ofimmediate social
relations and domestic settings.
As well as providing empirical data regarding a range ofconsumption practices in
contemporary Britain, the thesis goes on to argue that it is within these forms of
provisioning that the practice ofnormativity is most evident. While a major theoretical
pretext ofanthropological enquiry is the question ofhow culture operates cohesively in
the context ofmodernity, what arises from this ethnography is the extent to which goods
and the values made around them, through exchange, are used in the making ofthe
normative. This thesis examines the role ofeveryday alternative provisioning in
constituting and contesting moral and social pressures to determine a basis of
conformity and having made these conditions, facilitate the relationships that depend
upon them.
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CONTENTS
Thesis Abstract 2
Acknowledgements 4
Introduction 5
The Practice ofthe Normative
Chapter One 12
Methodology on 'the street'
Chapter Two 36
Becoming a Mother in North London: Maternity and Materiality
Chapter Three 77
"Mother Swapping": the Trafficking ofSecond-HandBaby Goods
Chapter Four 108
Coming ofAge in North London: Gifting and the Practice ofNormativity
Chapter Five 151
Setting Up Home in North London: The Ideal and the Actual
Chapter Six 181
Catalogues and Classifieds: Provisioning, Class and New Consumer Skills
Chapter Seven 220
Colour Me Beautiful: the Anxiety ofTaste and the Gendered Work ofAesthetics
Conclusion 254
The Practice and Context ofNormativity
References 270
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Acknowledgements
This thesis relied on the willingness ofinhabitants ofJay Road, north London, to give
up their time and open up parts oftheir everyday domestic lives for research purposes. I
hope that the relationships constructed in the course ofthis study were not merely to my
benefit and I thank whole-heartedly the participants, who contributed invaluably to this
work, for letting me into their homes.
The stimulation and support ofthe informal 'material culture dinner group', based in the
Department ofAnthropology, has made this research a sociable, and in many ways,
collaborative effort and I thank all ofthe members for their helpful suggestions along
the way. I would like, in particular, to acknowledge the friendship ofBeatrice Hart and
Inge Daniels.
Many thanks to my supportive supervisor, Daniel Miller, for his patience and
enthusiasm in all matters ofethnography and material culture over a lengthy period.
In the latter stages ofthe work, the British Library served as a home from home and I
thank all ofthe library staffand the fellow inmates for making the 'writing-up' stage of
the project more efficient and stimulating.
Finally, I am most grateful for the support ofmy family and friends and the energies of
Paul Foster, and in the latter stages, Doughnut, who helped bring this lengthy project to
fruition.
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Introduction
The Practice of the Normative:
the Making ofMothers, Children and Homes in North London
This thesis began as an inquiry into the 'alternative' or 'informal' means by which
goods are acquired and the household is provisioned in contemporary Britain. In
contrast to the numerous studies which emphasise the formal retail site and the activity
ofshopping, this ethnography ofan 'ordinary' street in north London set out to account
for the less tangible activities involved in the provisioning ofthe household. Initial
inquiry into these less visible activities, such as gift exchange, passing on ofsecond
hand goods, home-made goods, party plan sales schemes, revealed their notable relation
to women's domestic work as carers (Devault 1991; Cheal 1986; Werbner 1988).
Certainly, numerous comparative cross-cultural ethnographies reveal the ostensibly
feminised nature ofsuch activities, from the practice ofgenerating home decoration
schemes in accordance with a shared notion of'neighbourliness' in Norway (Gullestad
1986), to the attendance ofintra-household 'kitty parties' in northern India' (Sharma
1986). In her study ofthe newly urbanised area ofShimla in north India, Sharma
describes how the informal provisioning activities ofwomen, and concerns over
apparently incidental issues such as aesthetic style, are crucial in maintaining and
extending social relations;
It was women who took the leading role in maintaining and extending
the network ofgift exchange relationship in which the household
participated, seeing to it that gifts ofcloth, sweets, and cash were
presented in the correct amount or quality on appropriate ceremonial
occasions (1986:150).
The 'work' ofwomen in relation to provisioning and the generation ofvalue through
exchange is dealt with in the recent work ofsociologist Zelizer (1994; 2001). Zelizer
(2001), in her study ofeconomic transaction and intimate ties, considers the traditional
Kitty parties are regular social gatherings, taking place inthe newly urbanised area ofShimla, where a
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group ofwomen each contribute to a common pool ofmoney. Each month money is drawn, inturn, and
used for entertainment in the home ofa particular 'housewife'; 'The kitty party nicely symbolizes the
juxtaposition ofthought and style as considerations for the urban housewife'. (Sharma 1986: 84)
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divide made by sociologists and economists between money, the market and intimate
relations. Even economic sociology which acknowledges the social nature ofmarket
activity (White 1988), she observes, continues to focus on so-called 'true' market
examples relegating other forms ofeconomic activity (such as households, informal
economy and consumption) to a non-market world. Contrary to the numerous
dichotomous approaches to the market sphere/ non-market sphere, and the world of
intimacy and the world ofmoney, Zelizer advocates an understanding ofthe intersection
ofintimate social ties and institutions such as money, bureaucracies, markets and
specialised associations. In her 'differentiated ties' approach she argues that 'in all sorts
ofsocial settings people differentiate strongly among different kinds ofinterpersonal
relations, marking them with distinct names, symbols, practices, and media of
exchange' (Zelizer 2001: 3). In turn these 'differentiated ties' generate distinctive
circuits which incorporate particular forms ofknowledge, information, obligations,
rights, symbols and media ofexchange which form in all arenas ofsocial life (schools,
households, armies, businesses, etc.). These circuits are not fixed entities but rather
'exchange media' that might be reshaped by participants in recognition ofdistinctions
amongst different forms ofsocial relations. The market, then, like money (Zelizer 1994)
cannot be understood simply as an inevitably homogenising force undermining the
value and meaning ofintimate relations (Kuttner 1997; Rifkin 2000). The empirical
evidence presented in this thesis testifies to the constant blurring ofnotions ofthe
market, social relations and intimate ties through the practices and meanings ofmodes
ofprovisioning and the seeking ofvalue through everyday cultural practice and material
culture.
The Creation of Value and the Search for the Normative
Activities ofprovisioning exist within a social context in which they are expressive of,
and constitutive of, the development and reproduction ofrelationships. What this thesis
will demonstrate, through ethnography, is that this understanding needs to be taken even
further; that it is not just anthropological and sociological theorists that translate
economic activity such as alternative provisioning into the study ofrelationships, but
the people being studied themselves. They are equally clear that provisioning is an
expression ofsuch relationships (Miller 1998b; Devault 1991; Gullestad 1992) and their
own concerns are quite explicitly more with the relationships themselves than with the
provisioning; which is frequently regarded as merely a means towards that further end.
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What will emerge in the ethnography is a sense in which the wider contexts ofthe study
ofthe provisioning ofthe home is actually the condition ofmodernity under which
individuals and households are striving to establish their own terms under which they
interact. This point fits into a broader debate within the social sciences (considered in
the conclusion) regarding the construction ofthe normative within culture (Bauman
1991; Beck 1992; Bourdieu 1979, Giddens 1979; Douglas 1973; Durkheim 1952). The
point about non-formal retail provisioning, as opposed to formal provisioning, is that
areas such as pricing, location and value are not as fixed as they are in shopping but
have to be invented as part ofthe activity itself. We have to decide where to hold the
jumble sale, for example, and what constitutes a fair price for each occasion (see Smith
1989; Stewart 1992). This brings with it a strong sense ofuncertainty and anxiety about
whether one is going about the procedure the right way and how it will be read by
others. So what begins as a consideration ofprovisioning becomes as much an
ethnography ofthose anxieties and the strategies by which those involved seek to allay
their own fears and the fears ofothers (Goffman 1990 [1959]).1 This ethnographic
study, then, from its preliminary consideration ofprovisioning evolved into a thesis
whose central concern is normativity itself. It considers the moral and social pressures
involved in determining a basis for conformity and the role ofprovisioning in creating
these conditions and thus facilitating the relationships that depend upon them.
Normativity, in the context ofthis thesis, is understood as the fluid process ofpursuing
consensus rather than the mere striving for adherence to a set ofestablished norms. In
this sense, it takes into consideration both the externally understood measures ofthe
normative (institutions, ideologies, etc.) and the more intimately and internalised
workings (personal histories, social relations, etc.) through which the normative is
formed as part ofa dynamic and contested process. This is not to suggest, then, the
constant striving towards normativity precludes conflict and change in favour ofa
levelled-down conformity. On the contrary, this process, as revealed in cultural practice,
involves rifts as much as coherence and is an on-going and shifting process.
Unlike Goffman's use ofsymbolic interactionism and 'role play' , this thesis emphasises how pressures
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arise autonomously rather than from a particular agent, inunderstanding the nonnative.
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The study ofthat practice can be observed in people's attempt to live this normativity
through the processes ofbecoming a mother, the setting up ofhomes, the gifting of
children and the provisioning ofthe household. Acknowledging that a pivotal concern
ofsocial science is the normative, this thesis turns from the abstract to the concretised
form ofthe practice by teasing out the ways in which everyday interactions between
people and people, and people and things, generate the state. It explores the importance
ofmaterial culture and related practices in creating the normative in the modem world.
While most literature around the normative centres on its power and the efforts of
people to resist it, this ethnographic study ofhouseholds and provisioning on a north
London street, regards how people try to create it in the first place as the social
environment within which they can live.
The huge concern that parents have for the appropriate behaviour ofboth themselves as
parents and their children, combined with the issues ofmaterialising this relationship in
the act ofprovisioning itself(and the possible disruption ofthis process by the growing
agency ofthe children themselves), make this the ideal material from which to construct
the more general path from the issue ofprovisioning to that ofnormativity and thus
culture more generally. As evident in the work ofJames (1979; 1993), relationships of
consumption with children can be seen to bring out several paradoxical issues and, as in
the case ofsweets, can be quite eloquent about the otherwise unexpressed, in this case
the children's own perception oftheir relationship to the adult world.'
The Thesis Structure
The first section ofthe thesis considers the activities ofmothers and children living on
and adjacent to the street and their relation to specific modes ofalternative provisioning.
Chapter one traces the process of 'becoming' a mother from the initial furnishing of
nurseries and the accumulation ofgoods through 'baby showers', to the rounds of
children's birthday parties attended and arranged. The provisioning and materiality of
3 See in particular James (1993) regarding the construction of'normal' and different childhoods in the
context ofthe medicalisation ofchildren which relates to the practice ofnormativity as a heightened
aspect ofparenting and childhood. To quote James 'some parents located the individuality or particularity
oftheir own children's childhood through comparison with a stereotype of'normal' childhood; others did
so in contrast' (1993:23). Similarily, James sets out to understand the 'finer lines ofsocial discrimination
used by children themselves to sort out those who belong and those who do not' (1993:43).
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motherhood forms a crucial aspect ofconstituting mother and infant. Choices ofgoods
and the arrangement ofbirthday parties are not simply a reflection of 'lifestyle' but are
detailed articulations ofaesthetics and value that have real implications. The trajectories
formed by these choices and relations, as well as striving towards a normative culture of
mothering, generate specific forms ofsociality and have broader implications in terms
ofideologies around mothering. This might be formalised in organisations such as the
NCT [National Childbirth Trust] which advocates specific approaches towards child
rearing as well as providing a formal support network. But more often it is through the
everyday practices ofalternative provisioning (the gifting ofother mothers' children,
preparing for a birthday party, attending school fayres, the lending ofbaby equipment,
etc.) that access to resources and modes ofmothering are generated.
In chapter two, the example ofthe nearly new sale and the alternative provisioning of
babies and children's clothes acts, in part, as a further ethnographic case study
supporting the observations ofthe opening chapter. It highlights the ways in which
values are made and negotiated through the exchanges and appropriations ofparticular
forms ofgoods. Through the inter-household trafficking ofsecond hand babies clothing,
relations are made and unmade between women, ideas around mothering are swapped
as a drive for a nonnativity is sought. This chapter challenges assumptions regarding the
isolatory nature ofwomen's work as mothers, and instead considers how such practices
create alternative spaces ofsociality through the borrowing ofmarket relations.
In chapter three the 'coming ofage' ofchildren in and around Jay Road is understood in
relation to the material culture ofchildhood and the adult/child gift relation. While there
is little visibility ofchildren playing on Jay Road itselfthe main arena ofintra
household child relations has arguably become that ofcontemporary material culture.
The Argos catalogue, for example, has become a staple ofhomes in the study. Children
have become familiarised with the toys and games contained in its pages and swap this
information in the play-ground as well as regularly using it to inform adults of
appropriate gifts for themselves. Although the parents ofhouseholds on the street may
never interact with each other, through this world ofmaterial culture and its transactions
parents anxiously negotiate the 'appropriateness' ofgifts in relation to those ofother
children; thus searching for some sense ofthe nonnative. Unlike chapters one and two,
this chapter shows how the growing agency ofthe child (and their increasing
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