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Playing with class: Middle‐class intensive mothering and the consumption of children's toys in Vietnam
Author(s) -
LePhuong Nguyen Khanh,
Harman Vicki,
Cappellini Benedetta
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international journal of consumer studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.775
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1470-6431
pISSN - 1470-6423
DOI - 10.1111/ijcs.12349
Subject(s) - vietnamese , middle class , consumption (sociology) , class (philosophy) , ideal (ethics) , style (visual arts) , psychology , social class , developmental psychology , qualitative research , gender studies , sociology , social psychology , political science , history , social science , philosophy , linguistics , archaeology , artificial intelligence , computer science , law
This article explores the way in which Vietnamese mothers purchase, gift and share toys with their children. The study utilises a qualitative design comprising semi‐structured interviews with 10 Vietnamese middle‐class professional working mothers of children aged between 5 and 9. This research highlights the way in which toys defined as “good” by mothers need to fulfil a number of important practical and social functions: they act as an investment in the child's future, as a reward, and as a means for mothers to buy time for themselves. The findings illustrate how these functions are influenced by Confucian and Western discourses of intensive mothering, generating a localized style of middle‐class intensive mothering, characterized by what we have called the ideal of the triple excellent and intensive mother .