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Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception in Israel
by Susan Martha KahnThere are more fertility clinics per capita in Israel than in any other country in the world and Israel has the world's highest per capita rate of in-vitro fertilization procedures. Fertility treatments are fully subsidized by Israeli national health insurance and are available to all Israelis, regardless of religion or marital status. These phenomena are not the result of unusually high rates of infertility in Israel but reflect the centrality of reproduction in Judaism and Jewish culture.In this ethnographic study of the new reproductive technologies in Israel, Susan Martha Kahn explores the cultural meanings and contemporary rabbinic responses to artificial insemination, in-vitro fertilization, egg donation, and surrogacy. Kahn draws on fieldwork with unmarried Israeli women who are using state-subsidized artificial insemination to get pregnant and on participant-observation in Israeli fertility clinics. Through close readings of traditional Jewish texts and careful analysis of Israeli public discourse, she explains how the Israeli embrace of new reproductive technologies has made Jewish beliefs about kinship startlingly literal. Kahn also reveals how a wide range of contemporary Israelis are using new reproductive technologies to realize their reproductive futures, from ultraorthodox infertile married couples to secular unmarried women.As the first scholarly account of assisted conception in Israel, this multisited ethnography will contribute to current anthropological debates on kinship studies. It will also interest those involved with Jewish studies.
Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization
by Khiara M. BridgesReproducing Race, an ethnography of pregnancy and birth at a large New York City public hospital, explores the role of race in the medical setting. Khiara M. Bridges investigates how race--commonly seen as biological in the medical world--is socially constructed among women dependent on the public healthcare system for prenatal care and childbirth. Bridges argues that race carries powerful material consequences for these women even when it is not explicitly named, showing how they are marginalized by the practices and assumptions of the clinic staff. Deftly weaving ethnographic evidence into broader discussions of Medicaid and racial disparities in infant and maternal mortality, Bridges shines new light on the politics of healthcare for the poor, demonstrating how the "medicalization" of social problems reproduces racial stereotypes and governs the bodies of poor women of color.
Reproduction and Society: Interdisciplinary Readings (Perspectives on Gender)
by Carole Joffe Jennifer ReichA collection of essays, framed with original introductions, Reproduction and Society: Interdisciplinary Readings helps students to think critically about reproduction as a social phenomenon. Divided into six rich and varied sections, this book offers students and instructors a broad overview of the social meanings of reproduction and offers opportunities to explore significant questions of how resources are allocated, individuals are regulated, and how very much is at stake as people and communities aim to determine their own family size and reproductive experiences. This is an ideal core text for courses on reproduction, sexuality, gender, the family, and public health.
Reproduction and Society: Interdisciplinary Readings (Perspectives on Gender)
by Carole Joffe Jennifer ReichThe new edition of Reproduction and Society assembles an authoritative collection of the best scholarship on reproductive matters to help students and readers think critically and more expansively about acts of reproduction as social phenomena.The social, political, and personal meanings of reproduction have become increasingly important and surround us in the news, during elections, and even within popular culture. In the aftermath of the United States Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a nearly 50-year-old precedent guaranteeing a constitutional right to abortion, these issues have become even more pressing. Exploring the topic from a sociological lens, and drawing on influential writing from other fields, including history, economics, anthropology, and medicine, editors Carole Joffe and Jennifer Reich are assured and accessible guides as they lead readers across six core thematic areas analyzing reproductive self-determination and why it matters. From a reproductive justice perspective, the new edition examines issues related to contraception and sterilization, abortion, pregnancy, maternal-fetal conflicts, and uses of reproductive technologies. Readers will encounter classical texts that have contributed to the foundation of this exciting field, as well as more recent research that continues to push the field forward, all in the service of sharpening their understanding of why reproductive politics have been and continue to be contentious, complicated, and high stakes.Refreshed and significantly expanded, with over two dozen new selections, the second edition of this reader will have wide appeal for undergraduate and graduate students who are new to the study of reproduction, both in courses that focus on the topic across different disciplines and as a supplement to courses on the family, gender, health care, social problems, and sexuality.
Reproduction by Design: Sex, Robots, Trees, and Test-Tube Babies in Interwar Britain
by Angus MclarenModernity in interwar Europe frequently took the form of a preoccupation with mechanizing the natural; fears and fantasies revolved around the notion that the boundaries between people and machines were collapsing. Reproduction in particular became a battleground for those debating the merits of the modern world. That debate continues today, and to understand the history of our anxieties about modernity, we can have no better guide than Angus McLaren. In Reproduction by Design, McLaren draws on novels, plays, science fiction, and films of the 1920s and '30s, as well as the work of biologists, psychiatrists, and sexologists, to reveal surprisingly early debates on many of the same questions that shape the conversation today: homosexuality, recreational sex, contraception, abortion, euthanasia, sex change operations, and in vitro fertilization. Here, McLaren brings together the experience and perception of modernity with sexuality, technology, and ecological concerns into a cogent discussion of science's place in reproduction in British and American cultural history.
Reproduction of Inequality and Social Exclusion: A Study of Dalits in a Caste Society, Nepal (Evidence-Based Approaches to Peace and Conflict Studies #2)
by Uddhab PyakurelThis book is a detailed account of how hierarchy has been maintained historically by the Nepali state, affirming the uniqueness of a caste-based social order by bringing outsiders, especially ethnic groups and religious minorities, into the caste fold. Focusing on the contemporary state of Dalits, the community that was and is put at the bottom of a very hierarchical social order in Nepal, the author argues that the traditional caste-based social order is still prevalent in the “new” Nepal even after the recent socio-political and constitutional changes. Illustrated by scientifically employed and interpreted data mainly in the three sectors of education, politics and employment, the book postulates that people who were and are born into the “high caste” still have more access to the resources and opportunities available in society in comparison with those born into the “lower” caste. It further argues that although reservation policies are in place to address social exclusion, these could not bring expected outcomes mainly due to the lack of engagement, if not ignorance, of both dominant groups and the community in the margin. The absence of clarity among political actors on the positive discrimination and affirmative actions has contributed to backtracking the recently created space in line with “inclusive Nepal”.
Reproduction on the Reservation: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Colonialism in the Long Twentieth Century (Critical Indigeneities Ser.)
by Brianna TheobaldThis book documents the transformation of reproductive practices and politics on Indian reservations from the late nineteenth century to the present, integrating a localized history of childbearing, motherhood, and activism on the Crow Reservation in Montana with an analysis of trends affecting Indigenous women more broadly. As the author illustrates, the federal government and local authorities have long sought to control Indigenous families and women's reproduction, using tactics such as coercive sterilization and removal of Indigenous children into the white foster care system. But she examines women's resistance, showing how they have worked within families, tribal networks, and activist groups to confront these issues. Blending local and intimate family histories with the histories of national movements such as WARN (Women of All Red Nations), the author links the federal government's intrusion into Indigenous women's reproductive and familial decisions to the wider history of eugenics and the reproductive rights movement. She argues convincingly that colonial politics have always been--and remain--reproductive politics. By looking deeply at one tribal nation over more than a century, the author offers an especially rich analysis of how Indigenous women experienced pregnancy and motherhood under evolving federal Indian policy. At the heart of this history are the Crow women who displayed creativity and fortitude in struggling for reproductive self-determination.
Reproduction, Kin and Climate Crisis: Making Bushfire Babies
by Celia Roberts Louisa Allen Mary Lou Rasmussen Rebecca WilliamsonWhat is it like to have a baby in climate crisis? This book explores the experiences of pregnant women and their partners, pre- and post-birth, during the catastrophic Australian bushfire season of 2019-20 and the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic. Engaging a range of concepts, including the Pyrocene, breath, care and embodiment, the authors explore how climate crisis is changing experiences of having children. They also raise questions about how gender and sexuality are shaped by histories of human engagements with fire. This interdisciplinary analysis brings feminist and queer questions about reproduction and kin into debates on contemporary planetary crises.
Reproductive Citizenship: Technologies, Rights and Relationships (Health, Technology and Society)
by Rhonda M. ShawThis book addresses responses to the predicament of medical and social infertility. It draws on international research to examine the dimensions of reproductive citizenship in relation to decision-making about a range of issues: from fertility preservation and the desirability of family creation as a normative expectation of social participation, to how families manage and negotiate engagement with providers of reproductive materials and services around information disclosure and contact, and how they consider their social obligations and responsibilities in relation to the use of assisted reproductive technology (ART).
Reproductive Health and Infectious Disease in the Middle East (Routledge Revivals)
by Robin Barlow Joseph W. BrownFirst published in 1998, this book covers a variety of health issues in the contemporary Middle east. Its thirteen chapters, contributed by a total of 23 authors and co-authors, reflect several different disciplines relevant for health studies, including epidemiology, economics and anthropology. In the field of reproductive health, there are chapters on maternal health indicators, fertility, infertility and the utilization of family planning services. In the field of infectious disease there are chapters on schistosomiasis, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, and Rift Valley Fever. Several different parts of the Middle East and North Africa are covered, including Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. Problems of reproductive health and infectious disease in the region are seen to be more serious than generally recognised. There are significant cultural and political obstacles in both areas. A particular need is for greater empowerment of women as both clients and providers within the health care systems.
Reproductive Health and Maternal Sacrifice
by Pam LoweThis book demonstrates that the symbol of maternal sacrifice is the notion that 'proper' women put the welfare of children, whether born, in utero or not conceived, over and above any choices and desires of their own. The idea of maternal sacrifice acts as powerful signifier in judging women's behaviour that goes beyond necessary care for any children. The book traces its presence in various aspects of reproductive health, from contraception to breastfeeding. Pam Lowe shows how although nominally choices are presented to women around reproductive health, maternal sacrifice is used to discipline women into conforming to specific norms, reasserting traditional forms of womanhood. This has significant implications for women's autonomy. Women can resist or reject this disciplinary position when making reproductive decisions, but in doing so, they may be positioned as transgressing and/or need to justify their decisions. The book will be of great interest to scholars of sociology, gender studies and health studies.
Reproductive Justice and Sexual Rights: Transnational Perspectives
by Tanya Saroj BakhruThis book takes an intersectional, interdisciplinary, and transnational approach, presenting work that will provide the reader with a nuanced and in-depth understanding of the role of globalization in the sexual and reproductive lives of gendered bodies in the 21st century. Reproductive Justice and Sexual Rights: Transnational Perspectives draws on reproductive justice and transnational feminism as frameworks to explore and make sense of the reproductive and sexual experiences of various groups of women and marginalized people around the world. Interactions between globalization, feminism, reproductive justice, and sexual rights are explored within human rights and transnational feminist paradigms. This book includes case studies from Mexico, Ireland, Uganda, Colombia, Taiwan, and the United States. The edited collection presented here is intended to provide academics and students with a challenging and thought-provoking look into sexual and reproductive health matters from across the globe. In this way, the work presented in this volume will help the reader understand their own reproductive and sexual experiences in a more nuanced and contextualized way that links individuals and communities to each other in a quest for justice and liberation.
Reproductive Justice, Adoption, and Foster Care
by Tanya Saroj Bakhru Krista L. BensonUnderstanding practices of family separation and child removal necessitates considering the impacts of globalizing capitalism, colonialism, empire building and the establishment and normalization of systemic racism. In Reproductive Justice, Adoption, and Foster Care, the authors situate the colonial legacies of family separation, what it means to center the right parent, and Reproductive Justice and transnational feminist frameworks in conversation with one another in order to elucidate a more nuanced and comprehensive approach to recognizing the significance of contemporary examples of family separation. In doing so, the book showcases the connections between adoption and foster care within the intellectual and activist frameworks of human rights, Critical Adoption Studies, Reproductive Justice, and transnational feminisms. Epistemologically, Reproductive Justice and transnational feminisms meet at the point where both consider and interrogate globalizing capitalism, neoliberal economic and political ideologies, and the ways that various people—mostly people of color, poor people, women, children, and Indigenous people—are considered disposable. Critical Adoption Studies also importantly highlights the ways that adoption and foster care function as forms of family formation and as mechanisms of globalizing capitalism and state formation. Thus, it is critical that any exploration of the reproductive experiences of marginalized individuals interrogate and complicate notions of “choice” to advocate for justice. Reproductive Justice, Adoption, and Foster Care will be of interest to students of sociology, psychology, and social work, as well as scholars, activists, policymakers, and adoption and foster care practitioners.
Reproductive Physiology and Birth Control: The Writings of Charles Knowlton and Annie Besant
by S. Chandrasekhar"I say that this is a dirty, filthy book, and the test of it is that no human being would allow that book on his table, no decently educated English husband would allow even his wife to have ità." Such was the uncompromising pronouncement of Sir Hardinge Gifford, Her Majesty's Solicitor General, who in 1877 prosecuted Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant for publishing Dr. Charles Knowlton's Fruits of Philosophy.Knowlton's work was the first American medical handbook on contraception. It had become an incredibly popular book among Britons who believed the neo-Malthusian dictum that the only solution to poverty in Britain was a limit on the growth of its population. They saw effective birth control measures as a way to make such a limit practicable. In 1877, its publisher was hauled into court and pleaded guilty to printing obscene material. Bradlaugh and Besant tested the right of official harassment by bringing out an edition of the Fruits of Philosophy that bore an introduction explaining their motives. The pair was arrested and charged with violating the Obscene Publications Act of 1857.Their arrest, trial, conviction, and eventual acquittal constitute a landmark in the history of the world birth control movement. The enormous publicity accorded the principals and their cause brought the subject of family planning into the homes of nearly every Briton who read the newspapers' sensational coverage. What followed thereafter is telling: a dramatic, steady decline in the English birthrate. By their simple act of publishing Knowlton's short book, Bradlaugh and Besant helped establish England's pioneering role in the dissemination, democratization, and implementation of birth control information.Sripati Chandrasekhar is an internationally respected demographer and social scientist. He is a former minister of health and family planning in India and was vice-chancellor of Annamalai University in South India. He is the author of numerous books and articles on population and family planning.
Reproductive Politics in India: The Case of Sex-Selective Abortion
by Josephine KipgenThis monograph explores the full context of sex-selective abortion (SSA) in India by examining the historical forces, political movements, government policies, and gender regimes that shape this reproductive practice. Using qualitative research methods within a feminist methodology, including in-depth interviews with service providers and professionals in New Delhi and a content analysis of Indian newspapers, the study engages the following areas of analysis: the social structures and determinants of SSA in India, the potential for women’s agency in SSA, and the representations of SSA and SSA-seeking women in the Indian media. This research expands the discourse and analysis of SSA by facilitating a nuanced and multilayered exploration of a profoundly contextual, personal, and gendered reproductive issue by grounding data and interpretation in the lived experiences of research participants with systems-wide knowledge of SSA. Further, the feminist theory-informed analysis moves away from normative victimhood frameworks. Lastly, the book contributes to the understudied area of media discourse analysis on the intersections of gender and SSA in national news coverage. This book will be relevant for students, scholars, and teachers across the humanities and social sciences interested in reproductive rights, justice, and feminist research methods. It will also be a critical resource for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocates.
Reproductive Rights as Human Rights: Women of Color and the Fight for Reproductive Justice
by Zakiya LunaReveals both the promise and the pitfalls associated with a human rights approach to the women of color-focused reproductive rights activism of SisterSongHow did reproductive justice—defined as the right to have children, to not have children, and to parent—become recognized as a human rights issue? In Reproductive Rights as Human Rights, Zakiya Luna highlights the often-forgotten activism of women of color who are largely responsible for creating what we now know as the modern-day reproductive justice movement.Focusing on SisterSong, an intersectional reproductive justice organization, Luna shows how, and why, women of color mobilized around reproductive rights in the domestic arena. She examines their key role in re-framing reproductive rights as human rights, raising this set of issues as a priority in the United States, a country hostile to the concept of human rights at home.An indispensable read, Reproductive Rights as Human Rights provides a much-needed intersectional perspective on the modern-day reproductive justice movement.
Reproductive Tourism in the United States: Creating Family in the Mother Country (Routledge Advances in Sociology #142)
by Lauren Jade MartinThis book examines the United States as a destination for international consumers of assisted fertility services, including egg donation, surrogacy, and sex selection. Based on interviews conducted with fertility industry insiders who market their services to an international clientele in three of the largest American hubs of the global fertility marketplace - New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco - and focusing on the providers rather than the consumers of assisted fertility services, the book shines a light on how professional ethics and norms, in addition to personal moralities, shape the practice of reproductive tourism.
Republic Of Drivers: A Cultural History Of Automobility In America (Afterlives Of The Bible Ser.)
by Cotten SeilerRising gas prices, sprawl and congestion, global warming, even obesity—driving is a factor in many of the most contentious issues of our time. So how did we get here? How did automobile use become so vital to the identity of Americans? Republic of Drivers looks back at the period between 1895 and 1961—from the founding of the first automobile factory in America to the creation of the Interstate Highway System—to find out how driving evolved into a crucial symbol of freedom and agency. Cotten Seiler combs through a vast number of historical, social scientific, philosophical, and literary sources to illustrate the importance of driving to modern American conceptions of the self and the social and political order. He finds that as the figure of the driver blurred into the figure of the citizen, automobility became a powerful resource for women, African Americans, and others seeking entry into the public sphere. And yet, he argues, the individualistic but anonymous act of driving has also monopolized our thinking about freedom and democracy, discouraging the crafting of a more sustainable way of life. As our fantasies of the open road turn into fears of a looming energy crisis, Seiler shows us just how we ended up a republic of drivers—and where we might be headed.
Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power
by Anna Merlan“[An] engrossing assessment of the profitable mainstreaming of conspiracy mongering in civic and political life . . . A lucid look at a slippery topic.” —Kirkus ReviewsAmerican society has always been fertile ground for conspiracy theories, but with the election of Donald Trump, previously outlandish ideas suddenly attained legitimacy. Trump himself is a conspiracy enthusiast: From his claim that global warming is a Chinese hoax to the accusations of “fake news,” he has fanned the flames of suspicion.But it was not one man alone who gave these ideas increased power. Republic of Lies looks beyond the caricatures of conspiracy theorists to explain their tenacity. Without lending the theories validity, Anna Merlan gives a nuanced, sympathetic account of the people behind them, across the political spectrum, and the circumstances that helped them take hold. The lack of a social safety net, inadequate education, bitter culture wars, and years of economic insecurity have created large groups of people who feel forgotten by their government and even besieged by it. Our contemporary conditions are a perfect petri dish for conspiracy movements: a durable, permanent, elastic climate of alienation and resentment. All the while, an army of politicians and media figures have peddled fear to serve their own ends.Bringing together penetrating historical analysis and gripping on-the-ground reporting, Republic of Lies transforms our understanding of American paranoia.“A captivating book that illuminates the landscape of conspiracy theories and what they might say about society as a whole.” —New York Magazine
Republic of Outsiders: The Power of Amateurs, Dreamers, and Rebels
by Alissa Quart&“Vivid portraits&” of individuals and subcultures by a writer who &“unmasks the assumptions we make about what counts as normal&” (The New York Times). They are outsiders who seek to redefine fields from mental health to diplomacy to music. They push boundaries and transform ideas. They include filmmakers crowdsourcing their work, transgender and autistic activists, and Occupy Wall Street&’s &“alternative bankers.&” These people create and package themselves in a practice cultural critic Alissa Quart dubs &“identity innovation.&” In this &“fascinating&” book, Quart introduces us to individuals who have created new structures to keep themselves sane, fulfilled, and, on occasion, paid. This deeply reported book shows how these groups now gather, organize, and create new communities and economies. Without a middleman, freed of established media, and highly mobile, unusual ideas and cultures are able to spread more quickly and find audiences and allies. Republic of Outsiders is a critical examination of those for whom being rebellious, marginal, or amateur is a source of strength (Barbara Ehrenreich). &“Even if you don&’t consider yourself an outsider or a rebel, Quart&’s book has several lessons for creative work, particularly when it comes to making art outside a heavily commercial system.&” —Fast Company &“One of the smartest cultural interpreters of her generation. In Republic of Outsiders, she mixes sharp-eyed analysis with an empathetic heart. The result is a great read, and a brand-new lens through which to view outsiders, insiders—and ourselves.&” —Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can&’t Stop Talking
Republicanism in Russia: Community Before and After Communism
by Oleg KharkhordinMarxism was the loser in the Cold War, but Oleg Kharkhordin is not surprised that liberal democracy failed to take root after the Soviet Union’s dissolution. He suggests that Russians find a path to freedom by looking to the classical tradition of republican self-government and civic engagement already familiar from their history and literature.
Republics at War, 1776–1840
by Pierre Serna Antonino De Francesco Judith A. MillerThis collection probes the troubling connections between war and republic during Revolutionary era, 1776-1840. It presents the work of an international team of scholars, some of them in English for the first time.
Reputation Management Online: America's "Right to Be Forgotten" (NCA Focus on Communication Studies)
by Ben MedeirosThis book examines the work of the public relations, technology, and legal professionals who provide online "reputation management" services, situating their work within contemporary debates about regulating speech on the internet. The author argues that legal solutions like the European "Right to Be Forgotten" are not really possible in the U.S., but that the private solutions of reputation management help to ameliorate novel concerns about reputation. At the same time, he contends that these practices prompt different free speech and dignitary concerns unique to the digital environment. Drawing upon rhetorical and legal analysis of diverse texts, including reputation management promotional materials, interviews with practitioners, legal cases, and popular online commentary about reputational disputes themselves, the book intervenes in specific debates about the regulation of the internet, as well as broader socio-legal debates about the role of reputation-damaging speech in a democratic society. This timely and relevant study will have great relevance for all students and scholars of communication studies, public relations, rhetoric, new and digital media, internet law, technology and society, computer mediated communication, and sociology.
Reputation-Based Governance
by Lucio PicciIt would be easy to cheat someone on eBay. However, an essential characteristic of the site prevents this from happening: buyer and seller reviews form what amounts to an "index of reputation. " The availability of such an index provides a strong incentive to be an honest trader. Reputation-Based Governance melds concepts from businesses like eBay with politics. Author Lucio Picci uses interdisciplinary tools to argue that the intelligent use of widely available Internet technologies can strengthen reputational mechanisms and significantly improve public governance. Based on this notion, the book proposes a governance model that leans on the concept of reputational incentives while discussing the pivotal role of reputation in politics today. Picci argues that a continuous, distributed process of assessing policy outcomes, enabled by an appropriate information system, would contribute to a governance model characterized by effectiveness, efficiency, and a minimum amount of rent-seeking activity. Moreover, if citizens were also allowed to express their views on prospective policies, then reputation-based governance would provide a platform on which to develop advanced forms of participative democracy.
Reputation: What It Is and Why It Matters
by Gloria OriggiA compelling exploration of how reputation affects every aspect of contemporary lifeReputation touches almost everything, guiding our behavior and choices in countless ways. But it is also shrouded in mystery. Why is it so powerful when the criteria by which people and things are defined as good or bad often appear to be arbitrary? Why do we care so much about how others see us that we may even do irrational and harmful things to try to influence their opinion? In this engaging book, Gloria Origgi draws on philosophy, social psychology, sociology, economics, literature, and history to offer an illuminating account of an important yet oddly neglected subject.Origgi examines the influence of the Internet and social media, as well as the countless ranking systems that characterize modern society and contribute to the creation of formal and informal reputations in our social relations, in business, in politics, in academia, and even in wine. She highlights the importance of reputation to the effective functioning of the economy and e-commerce. Origgi also discusses the existential significance of our obsession with reputation, concluding that an awareness of the relationship between our reputation and our actions empowers us to better understand who we are and why we do what we do.Compellingly written and filled with surprising insights, Reputation pins down an elusive subject that affects everyone.