Standby Mothering: Temporalities, Affects, and the Politics of Mobile Intergenerational Care

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I showcase how left-behind mothers in the Philippines use digital communication technologies in delivering care to their overseas adult children in Melbourne, Australia. As part of a broader research project on transnational family life, the findings were drawn upon in-depth interviews, visual methods, a simple participant observation, and field notes taking and analysis. The study deployed a mediated mobilities lens, paying close attention to the different forces that shape the provision of intergenerational care through mobile device use. Building upon a critical analysis of the digitalization of intergenerational relationships in a transnational context, I coin the term ‘standby mothering.’ This conception encapsulates the femininized, ubiquitous, networked, and ambivalent intergenerational care practices that are experienced and negotiated by distant mothers. On the one hand, mobile device use enables left-behind mothers to deliver emotional and practical caregiving. On the other hand, everyday temporal conditions and technological barriers impede the provision of intergenerational care. Communicative constraints are constantly managed through various tactics, ensuring the sustenance of transnational relationships. By interrogating the contradictory outcomes of transnational caregiving, I underscore the politics of mediated mobilities in a digital society. Here, the mobilization of gendered, networked, and differential care practices is influenced by uneven structural and even socio-technological dimensions. Ultimately, this paper elucidates a critical stance on re-examining the provision of informal, gendered, and networked care practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnational mothering
• transnational communication
• ambient co-presence
• gender norm
• temporality
• smartphone
• Facebook
• phone call

Acknowledgments

This research study would not have been made possible without the participation of the left-behind mothers in the Philippines as part of a broader project on transnational and networked family life. I also extend my gratitude to Professor Jessica Ringrose and Professor Carol Vincent of the Institute of Education, University College London. They organized a seminar at UCL in 2019, in which the earlier draft of this paper was presented and received feedback. Moreover, my sincerest appreciation to the insightful and helpful feedback of the two anonymous reviewers, paving the way for the strengthening of the paper’s key arguments. Lastly, I am thankful to the special series editors for the assistance that they have provided, contributing to a smooth publication process.