Birth controlled : selective reproduction and neoliberal eugenics in South Africa and India / edited by Amrita Pande.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Pande, Amrita, editor.

Series:

Governing intimacies in the global South.

Governing intimacies in the global South

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Birth control--India.

Birth control.

Birth control--South Africa.

Birth control--Political aspects--India.

Birth control--Political aspects--South Africa.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 375 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2022.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This book analyses the world of selective reproduction - the politics of who gets to legitimately reproduce the future - by a cross-cultural analysis of three modes of 'controlling' birth: contraception, reproductive violence, and repro-genetic technologies. The premise is that as fertility rates decline worldwide, the fervour to control fertility, and fertile bodies, does not dissipate; what evolves is the preferred mode of control. Although new technologies, for instance those that assist conception and/or allow genetic selection, may appear to be the antithesis of violent versions of population control, the book demonstrates that both are part of the same continuum. Much as all population control policies target and vilify (Black) women for their over-fertility, and coerce/induce them into subjecting their bodies to state and medical surveillance, assisted reproductive technologies and repro-genetic technologies have a similar and stratified burden of blame and responsibility based on gender, race, class, and caste. The book includes contributions from two postcolonial nations - South Africa and India - where the history of colonialism and the economics of neoliberal markets allow for some parallel moments of selecting who gets to legitimately reproduce the future. The book provides a critical interdisciplinary and cutting-edge dialogue around the interconnected issues that shape reproductive politics in an ostensibly 'post-population control' era. The contributions range from gender studies, sociology, medical anthropology, politics, science and technology studies, to theology, public health, epidemiology and women's health, with the aim of facilitating an interdisciplinary dialogue around the interconnected modes of controlling birth and practices of neo-eugenics.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. I Birth projects

1. Birth projects, selective reproduction and neoliberal eugenics / Amrita Pande

2. Spectres of biological politics: conversations within and across South Asia / Banu Subramaniam

3. Ved Garbh Vihar: Hindutva's latest neo-eugenic repronational project / Vasudha Mohanka

4. Racialising ancient skeletons: how haplogroups are mobilised in the re-writing of origin stories in the Indian media / Devika Prakash

5. Bio-power and assisted reproductive technologies in the global south: an ethical response from South Africa informed by vulnerability and justice / Manitza Kotze

pt. II Birth violated

6. Injectable contraceptives: technologies of power and language of rights / C. Sathyamala

7. Stratified and violent: young women's experiences of access to reproductive health in southern Africa / Kezia Batisai

8. The politics of naming: contested vocabularies of birth violence / Rachelle Chadwick

9. Individuals, institutions, and the global political economy: unpacking intentionality in obstetric violence / Sreeparna Chattopadhyay

pt. III Birth assisted

10. Caste and the stratification of reproductive labour: Dalit feminist voices from the field / Mohan Rao

11. Hamstrung by hardship: protecting egg donors' reproductive labour in Kolkata, India / Meghna Mukherjee

12. The egg donation economy in South Africa: different levels of biopolitics / Verena Namberger

13. Subjects of scarcity: making white egg providers in the repro-hub of South Africa / Tessa Moll

14. The resurgence of eugenics through egg donation in South Africa: race as a central and `obvious' choice / Rufaro Moyo.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 25 Feb 2026).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781526172884

1526172887

9781526160539

1526160536

9781526160553

1526160552

OCLC:

1377817043