ABSTRACT

The sites, spaces and subjects of reproduction are distinctly geographical. Reproductive geographies span different scales - body, home, local, national, global - and movements across space.

This book expands our understanding of the socio-cultural and spatial aspects of fertility, pregnancy and birth. The chapters directly address global perspectives, the future of reproductive politics and state-focused approaches to the politicisation of fertility, pregnancy and birth. The book provides up-to-date explorations on the changing landscapes of reproduction, including the expansion of reproductive technologies, such as surrogacy and intrauterine insemination. Contributions in this book focus on phenomenologically-inspired accounts of women’s lived experience of pregnancy and birth, the biopolitics of birth and citizenship, the material histories of reproductive tissues as "scientific objects" and engagements with public health and development policy.

This is an essential resource for upper-level undergraduates and graduates studying topics such as Sociology, Geographies of Gender, Women’s Studies and Anthropology of Health and Medicine.

chapter |14 pages

Introduction

A call for reproductive geographies

part I|2 pages

Bodies

chapter 1|14 pages

Making an “embryological vision of the world”

Law, maternity and the Kyoto Collection

chapter 2|17 pages

Biological reproduction, respatialised

Conceiving abnormality in a biotech age

chapter 3|19 pages

Right donor, right place

Spatialities of artificial insemination

chapter 4|22 pages

Behind closed doors

The hidden needs of perimenopausal women in Ghana

part II|2 pages

Places

chapter 5|15 pages

“Here we are!”

Exploring academic spaces of pregnant graduate students

chapter 6|16 pages

“It is a jail which does not let us be…”

Negotiating spaces of commercial surrogacy by reproductive labourers in India

chapter 7|20 pages

The best of both worlds?

Mothers’ narratives around birth centre experiences in the Twin Cities, Minnesota

chapter 8|17 pages

“My germs, my space, my stuff, my smells”

Homebirth as a site of spatialised resistance in Appalachian Ohio

part III|2 pages

Politics

chapter 9|23 pages

Birth and biopolitics

Maternity migration, birthright citizenship and domopolitics in Hong Kong

chapter 11|20 pages

Reproducing inequalities

Examining the intersection of environment and global maternal and child health

chapter |4 pages

Conclusion

Reproductive bodies, places and politics: Future directions