Maternity package / baby box has been present in the lives of Finnish families since the adoption of the Maternity Grants Act in 1937, and it is closely connected to the history and the present of the Finnish welfare state.
The research project explores the changing societal functions and the intergenerational meanings, experiences and memories related to the maternity package, and the baby box as an emotional and institutional object of the welfare state. In this wider socio-cultural-material perspective, the baby box is extremely rich with subjective and collective experiences that are multilayered, even sometimes contradictory. The project combines the methods of historical research and performative art.
Funding
Kone Foundation