Weighing the future : race, science, and pregnancy trials in the postgenomic era / Natali Valdez.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Valdez, Natali, 1986- author.

Series:

Critical environments (Oakland, Calif.)

Critical Environments: Nature, Science, and Politics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Clinical trials--Social aspects--United States.

Clinical trials.

Clinical trials--Social aspects--Great Britain.

Clinical trials--Political aspects--United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (300 pages)

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2022]

Summary:

Epigenetics, the study of heritable changes in gene expression, has been heralded as one of the most promising new fields of scientific inquiry. Current large-scale studies selectively draw on epigenetics to connect behavioral choices made by pregnant people, such as diet and exercise, to health risks for future generations. As the first ethnography of its kind, Weighing the Future examines the sociopolitical implications of ongoing pregnancy trials in the United States and the United Kingdom, illuminating how processes of scientific knowledge production are linked to capitalism, surveillance, and environmental reproduction. Natali Valdez argues that a focus on individual behavior rather than social environments ignores the vital impacts of systemic racism. The environments we imagine to shape our genes, bodies, and future health are intimately tied to race, gender, and structures of inequality. This groundbreaking book makes the case that science, and how we translate it, is a reproductive project that requires feminist vigilance. Instead of fixating on a future at risk, this book brings attention to the present at stake.

Contents:

Intro

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Weighing the Future

Part I

1. Epistemic Environments: Reproducing Solutions to Past, Present, and Future Maternal Health

2. Un/Altered: The Durability of Individualized Interventions for Multidimensional Illness

Part II

3. Politics of Recruitment: How Fatness, Race, and Risk Shape Contemporary Pregnancy Trials

4. Pregnant Narratives: Experiencing Lifestyle Interventions

Part III

5. Environmental Animations: What Counts as the Maternal Environment?

6. Prospecting Pregnancies: Data, Time, and Speculative Value

Conclusion: The Afterbirth of Foreclosure

Epilogue: [The Future] Is Composed of Nows

Notes

References

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Valdez, Natali Weighing the Future

ISBN:

9780520380158

0520380150

OCLC:

1281957918