Workshop: Rights, Reproduction and Care

Gender, intimacy and mobility in the
context of hardening borders and new
populist nationalisms.

This workshop addresses the linked concepts of rights,control and regulation of reproduction, and the growing financialisation of care. We are on one hand witnessing the growth of populist and exclusionist movements which push European governments to harden and militarise borders. Simultaneously, Western European countries depend on migrant labour to meet a variety of physical and emotional needs, such as childcare and care of the elderly. The contradictions inherent in the xenophobic regulation of borders and the increasing dependence on migrant labour for intimate care are mirrored in current debates and regulations around questions of reproductive choice and reproduction. While moves are made by some governments to limit reproductive rights, new entrepreneurial activities in reproductive health services may also be allowed.

By focusing on reproductive regulation and constraints, and simultaneously on the growth of reproduction both as an industry driven by market forces and “outsourced”, financialized care, we want to probe the contradictions which currently enforce borders and control mobility in some contexts, and open them, making them porous and economically dynamic, in others.

The workshop is organized as a closed event, but has space for a few participants in addition to those presenting papers. If you would like to attend, please contact Maria Luttges: Maria.Luttges@uib.no

Time: December 8th 2017

Place: Department of Health Promotion and Development, University of Bergen

Full programme