Birth rates are declining worldwide whilst reproductive technologies continue to advance. This webinar series politicized declining fertility rates by foregrounding the economic constraints and global inequalities that shape who gets to be pregnant and who gets to be born.
BLOCK I – Reproductive (In)Justice in an Unequal World
Birth rates are declining worldwide. This trend reflects divergent dynamics. On the one hand, women experience greater reproductive choice. On the other hand, various constraints persist including environmental crises, precarious labour conditions, housing insecurity, armed conflict, and inadequate healthcare. In addition, infertility and access to assisted reproductive technologies are not evenly distributed but are deeply embedded in global inequalities.
In response to declining fertility rates, selective pronatalist ideologies are gaining traction in different parts of the world, while in others antinatalist policies continue to shape population strategies - encouraging some populations to reproduce while discouraging, excluding, or restricting others from parenthood. At the same time, with developments in reproductive technologies we witness new forms of eugenic thinking, influencing not only who gets to be pregnant, but also who gets to be born.
This webinar series brought together activists and scholars from around the world to examine the decline in fertility rates as a political issue. The first two webinars focus on the economic constraints and global inequalities that shape who is able to become pregnant and to become a parent. The third turns to the ways in which Big Tech oligarchs are promoting selectively pronatalist agendas and reproductive futures. Unfortunately the third webinar can't be uploaded because of a technical issue during the recording.
Session 1: Who gets to become a parent? The Politics of Birth Rates (Alanna Armitage and Ralf Ruckus)
Reproductive (In)Justice in An Unequal World: The Politics of Birth Rates - Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
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Session 2: Who is allowed to reproduce? Reproductive Racism and Global Inequalities (Sophia Siddiqui, Sethembiso-Promise Mthembu and Susanne Schultz)
Reproductive (In)Justice in An Unequal World: Who Is Allowed to Reproduce? - Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
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BLOCK II – Reproductive (In)Justice in an Unequal World
In this second block, we turn to the technologies, markets and ideologies that shape who is enabled — or expected — to have children, who works as a gestational mother, and which children are supported to be born. Addressing "technological fixes", genetic selection and the outsourcing of pregnancy and fertility to the Global South, the three upcoming webinars trace how neoliberal economics, biotechnologies and global inequalities intersect in the politics of reproduction. Bringing together researchers and practitioners from political economy, art, science and technology studies, and feminist theory, we ask: who profits, who labours, and who is rendered dispensable in the global bioeconomy of reproduction?
Session 1: Outsourcing Pregnancies: On the Political Economy of Surrogacy in Ghana and the Making of New Markets (Amrita Pande)
Reproductive (In)Justice in An Unequal World - Outsourcing Pregnancies - Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
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Session 2: Who Pays, Who Carries? Tracing Global Fertility Chains through Georgia (Sigrid Vertommen and Ketevan Vashagashvili)
Reproductive (In)Justice in An Unequal World - Who Pays, Who Carries? - Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
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Session 3: Sci-Fi turned reality: On the Techno-Libertarian project of "building" "perfect babies" (Jennifer Denbow)
Reproductive (In)Justice in An Unequal World - Sci-Fi Turned Reality - Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
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This webinar series was organized and supported by Global Unit for Feminism and Gender Democracy, Gunda Werner Institute and PRiNA network.
