Call for papers for the Dossier “Reproductive politics: Latin American perspectives”

Starting from the premise that all reproduction is political (Ginsburg; Rapp, 1995) and/or all politics is reproductive (Briggs, 2017; Fonseca et al., 2021), the aim of this dossier is to promote a regional dialog between Latin American perspectives on the subject. Reproduction is understood here as a polysemic concept, which is not only restricted to a phenomenon culturally conceived as biological, but also includes social reproduction and care practices, tensioning boundaries between protection and control, market and non-market, professional and domestic spheres, domination and reciprocity, techniques and affections, attachment and repulsion, love and hate. Reproduction can also be understood as the means by which new generations are produced. In this sense, it is often situated at the center of political disputes and processes surrounding the future of communities, nations or peoples (Fonseca et al., 2021). 

Thus, when we talk about the “politics of reproduction”, we are calling for debates about imaginaries of nationhood, family, desire, control and the intervention of state practices, in which the sexuality and fertility of racialized and peripheral groups has a special inflection point.  It is worth noting that “politics of reproduction” is a concept introduced into the anthropological debate in the 1990s (Ginsburg; Rapp. 1995) with the aim of drawing attention to how reproduction is structured through social forces and power relations that cross and connect “intimate dynamics, national politics and global economic logics” (Fonseca et al., 2021). This is without losing sight of the agency of people, especially women, in their daily efforts to shape their reproductive lives, amid various power relations and constraints.  

From a perspective focused on reproductive policies in Latin America, Lynn Morgan and Elisabeth Roberts (2012) coined the concept of “reproductive governance”, recently taken up by Claudia Fonseca et al (2021). This concept serves to draw attention to the fact that reproductive policies are engendered from the actions of different social actors and articulate various forms of governmentality. In addition, the term “reproductive governance” is understood as an analytical tool for tracing historical changes and regional specificities in moral regimes and political rationalities in relation to reproduction. 

If the end of the 20th century was marked by a shift from reproductive governance centered on population control to a grammar of sexual reproductive rights, it is important to note that this movement took place in a context of advancing austerity policies and neoliberalism, which led to setbacks in social support and health services (Morgan; Roberts, 2012). Thus, the emphasis on reproductive rights centered on individual choice or autonomy has often been anchored in the market, which reinforces regimes of “stratified reproduction” (Collen, 1995) and “reproductive hierarchies” (Diniz; Mattar, 2012) based on inequalities of class, race, ethnicity, gender and location in a global geopolitics.

In the current context, marked by deepening social inequalities and offenses against or conservative appropriations of the language of reproductive rights, it is necessary to think about the range of agents involved in the multiple relationships of care and violations of reproductive rights. In this sense, some questions can be raised: who has the right to reproductive rights? Or who is effectively constituted as a “subject of rights” in relation to reproductive rights? Who can desire reproductive rights? And in what terms are these rights forged or claimed in different contexts and by different actors? Or even, which subjects of rights have been produced through forms of governance anchored in the language of reproductive rights? 

Based on ethnographic research carried out in different regions of Brazil and/or in Latin American countries, the dossier aims to bring together works that help to shed light on some of these questions from different empirical perspectives and contexts. This proposal is an offshoot of the organization of the seminar “Policies of reproduction: Latin American perspectives”, held on September 20, 2022, at UERJ's Institute of Social Medicine, which brought together researchers from Brazil, Argentina and Chile (https://www.ims.uerj.br/2022/09/20/seminario-politicas-da-reproducao-perspectivas-latino-americanas-assista-ao-debate-completo/) .

 

References:

BRIGGS, L. How all politics became reproductive politics: from welfare reform to foreclosure to Trump. Berkeley: University of California Press.

COLEN, S. “Like a mother to them”: stratified reproduction and West Indian childcare workers and employers in New York. In: GINSBURG, F. D.; RAPP, R. (ed.). Conceiving the New World Order: the global politics of reproduction. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. p. 78-102

FONSECA, Claudia, MARRE, Diana e RIFIOTIS, Fernanda. “Governança reprodutiva: um assunto de suma relevância política”. Horizontes Antropológicos [online]. 2021, v. 27, n. 61 [Acessado 10 Junho 2022] , pp. 7-46. Disponível em: <https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-71832021000300001>. Epub 06 Dez 2021. ISSN 1806-9983.

GINSBURG, F.; RAPP, R. (ed.). Conceiving the New World Order: the global politics of reproduction. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. (introduction)

MATTAR, Laura Davis e Diniz, Carmen Simone Grilo. “Hierarquias reprodutivas: maternidade e desigualdades no exercício de direitos humanos pelas mulheres”. Interface - Comunicação, Saúde, Educação [online]. 2012, v. 16, n. 40 [Acessado 10 Junho 2022] , pp. 107-120. Disponível em: <https://doi.org/10.1590/S1414-32832012005000001>. Epub 06 Mar 2012. ISSN 1807-5762. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1414-32832012005000001

MORGAN, L. M.; ROBERTS, E. F. S. “Reproductive governance in Latin America”. Anthropology & Medicine, [s. l.], v. 19, n. 2, p. 241-254, 2012.

Taking into account the evaluation criteria imposed on scientific journals, 50% of the articles may be selected from doctoral students; the other articles must be authored by at least one doctor. All articles submitted will be blindly assessed by external referees, in line with the journal's policy. In order to take account of the diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches to the different empirical fields and issues to be debated, articles will preferably be accepted from the fields of Anthropology and Social Sciences, observing the parameters of exogeny in relation to UFF.

Organizers: Camila Fernandes (UFBA, BA/UFRJ, RJ), Laura Lowenkron (UERJ, RJ) and Marjorie Murray (UC-Chile).

Deadline: June 22, 2025.

NOTE: As we have more than one open call, it is mandatory to indicate in the 'Comments to editors' field that the submission is for the “Reproductive politics” Dossier.

Contributions can be sent until June 22, 2025 via the journal's electronic system: https://periodicos.uff.br/antropolitica/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions