Towards a transnational reproductive justice

Lead Research Organisation: London School of Economics and Political Science
Department Name: Sociology

Abstract

An exploration through Sylvia Wynter and other decolonial theorists of the colonial matrices of power surrounding relationships between the global North and South, 'Gazing from below' to understand the various complicities and contradictions existing in the provision of reproductive (in)justice.
1492 saw the beginning of a transnational world. The social construction of the concept of race and what it means to be Human began here, alongside the beginning of reproductive injustice on a global scale. Wynter suggests that the Human is a construct created by a dominant ethno-class in their own image, creating a sub-humanity - a hierarchy of humanness that continues to impact human dynamics. Scholarship has utilised this theoretical framework in deconstructions of racialisation in the US. Less attention has been given to whether/how this dynamic works between global regions. When reproductive rights are often provided by the global North to the global South, does this dynamic persist? What does it mean to deliver rights through an episteme that may not serve all population groups equally? Can rights and justice be contradictory entities?
This work seeks to explore continuations of colonial matrices of power and bring into view the (un)seen or (un)acknowledged reproductions, extensions and mirrors of historical injustices. Further I will explore what it would mean to 'delink' from existing power matrices and what epistemic disobedience looks like for reproductive justice.

People

ORCID iD

Babette May (Student)

Publications

10 25 50

Studentship Projects

Project Reference Relationship Related To Start End Student Name
ES/P000622/1 01/10/2017 30/09/2027
2480099 Studentship ES/P000622/1 01/10/2020 30/12/2023 Babette May