Men and talk about legal abortion in South Africa : equality, support and rights discourses undermining reproductive ‘choice’
- Macleod, Catriona I, Hansjee, Jateen
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Hansjee, Jateen
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6295 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014770 , http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2013.802815
- Description: Discursive constructions of abortion are embedded in the social and gendered power relations of a particular socio-historical space. As part of research on public discourses concerning abortion in South Africa where there has been a radical liberalisation of abortion legislation, we collected data from male group discussions about a vignette concerning abortion, and newspaper articles written by men about abortion. Our analysis revealed how discourses of equality, support and rights may be used by men to subtly undermine women's reproductive right to ‘choose’ an abortion. Within an Equal Partnership discourse, abortion, paired with the assumption of foetal personhood, was equated with violating an equal heterosexual partnership and a man's patriarchal duty to protect a child. A New Man discourse, which positions men as supportive of women, was paired with the assumption of men as rational and women as irrational in decision-making, to allow for the possibility of men dissuading women from terminating a pregnancy. A Rights discourse was invoked to suggest that abortion violates men's paternal rights.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Hansjee, Jateen
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6295 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014770 , http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2013.802815
- Description: Discursive constructions of abortion are embedded in the social and gendered power relations of a particular socio-historical space. As part of research on public discourses concerning abortion in South Africa where there has been a radical liberalisation of abortion legislation, we collected data from male group discussions about a vignette concerning abortion, and newspaper articles written by men about abortion. Our analysis revealed how discourses of equality, support and rights may be used by men to subtly undermine women's reproductive right to ‘choose’ an abortion. Within an Equal Partnership discourse, abortion, paired with the assumption of foetal personhood, was equated with violating an equal heterosexual partnership and a man's patriarchal duty to protect a child. A New Man discourse, which positions men as supportive of women, was paired with the assumption of men as rational and women as irrational in decision-making, to allow for the possibility of men dissuading women from terminating a pregnancy. A Rights discourse was invoked to suggest that abortion violates men's paternal rights.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Reflecting on South African psychology: published research, ‘relevance’ and social issues
- Macleod, Catriona I, Howell, Simon
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Howell, Simon
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6219 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006277
- Description: As South Africa prepared to host the 30th International Congress of Psychology in 2012, a call was made to reflect on the strengths of and challenges facing contemporary South African Psychology. This paper presents our response to our brief to focus on social issues by presenting the results of a situational analysis of South African Psychology over the last five years and comparing this corpus of data to a similar analysis reported in Macleod (2004). Articles appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology (SAJP) and abstracts in PsycINFO with the keyword ‘South Africa’ over a 5½ year period were analysed. The content of 243 SAJP articles and 1986 PsycINFO abstracts were analysed using the codes developed by Macleod (2004). Results indicate: an increase in the number of articles, a reduction in the percentage of articles using quantitative methodologies and ‘hard’ science theoretical frameworks (particularly in the SAJP), and an increase in qualitative, theoretical, and methodological papers, and papers using systems-oriented theory (particularly in the SAJP). Traditional topics of assessment, stress and psychopathology continue to dominate, with social issues such as housing, land reform, development programmes, water resources and socio-economic inequities being largely ignored. Most research continues to be conducted in Gauteng, KwaZulu/Natal and the Western Cape, predominantly with adult, urban-based, middle-class participants, sourced mainly from universities, hospitals or clinics and schools. Collaborations or comparisons with other African, Asian, South American and Middle East countries have decreased. While the analysis presented in this paper is limited by its exclusion of books, theses, research reports and monographs, it shows that in published research there are some positive trends and some disappointments. The limited number of social issues featuring in published research, the under-representation of certain sectors of the population as participants, and the decrease in collaboration with, or comparison to, countries from the global ‘South’ represent challenges that require systematic attention.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Howell, Simon
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6219 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006277
- Description: As South Africa prepared to host the 30th International Congress of Psychology in 2012, a call was made to reflect on the strengths of and challenges facing contemporary South African Psychology. This paper presents our response to our brief to focus on social issues by presenting the results of a situational analysis of South African Psychology over the last five years and comparing this corpus of data to a similar analysis reported in Macleod (2004). Articles appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology (SAJP) and abstracts in PsycINFO with the keyword ‘South Africa’ over a 5½ year period were analysed. The content of 243 SAJP articles and 1986 PsycINFO abstracts were analysed using the codes developed by Macleod (2004). Results indicate: an increase in the number of articles, a reduction in the percentage of articles using quantitative methodologies and ‘hard’ science theoretical frameworks (particularly in the SAJP), and an increase in qualitative, theoretical, and methodological papers, and papers using systems-oriented theory (particularly in the SAJP). Traditional topics of assessment, stress and psychopathology continue to dominate, with social issues such as housing, land reform, development programmes, water resources and socio-economic inequities being largely ignored. Most research continues to be conducted in Gauteng, KwaZulu/Natal and the Western Cape, predominantly with adult, urban-based, middle-class participants, sourced mainly from universities, hospitals or clinics and schools. Collaborations or comparisons with other African, Asian, South American and Middle East countries have decreased. While the analysis presented in this paper is limited by its exclusion of books, theses, research reports and monographs, it shows that in published research there are some positive trends and some disappointments. The limited number of social issues featuring in published research, the under-representation of certain sectors of the population as participants, and the decrease in collaboration with, or comparison to, countries from the global ‘South’ represent challenges that require systematic attention.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Teenage pregnancy
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:6301 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015906
- Description: In a book on preventing early pregnancy and poor reproductive outcomes in developing countries, the World Health Organisation (2011) declares that ‘adolescent pregnancy’ contributes to maternal, perinatal and infant mortality, and to a vicious cycle of poverty and ill-health. This statement reflects the common public assumption that ‘teenage pregnancy’ represents an individual, social, health, educational and financial risk that requires remediation. This kind of public perception is spurred by media coverage in which young girls with large protruding stomachs are etched in profile and stories of calamity are told (e.g. Time (21 June 2005) magazine). And yet the very notion of 'teenage pregnancy' is a relatively recent one. Depending on the country one talks about, it has been around since between the 1960s and 1980s. In the United States, for example, the rise of ‘teenage pregnancy’ as a social problem was associated with a shift in gendered power relations. Prior to the late 1960s the morally loaded concepts of 'unwed mother' and 'illegitimate child' were used to describe young women who conceived. For the most part, young pregnant women were excluded from society, with the accompanying shame around the lack of proper conjugal arrangements. The use of the term 'teenage pregnancy' removed the implied moral judgment and replaced it with seeming scientific neutrality. Young pregnant women now became publicly visible and thus the object of scientific scrutiny (Arney & Bergen, 1984).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:6301 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015906
- Description: In a book on preventing early pregnancy and poor reproductive outcomes in developing countries, the World Health Organisation (2011) declares that ‘adolescent pregnancy’ contributes to maternal, perinatal and infant mortality, and to a vicious cycle of poverty and ill-health. This statement reflects the common public assumption that ‘teenage pregnancy’ represents an individual, social, health, educational and financial risk that requires remediation. This kind of public perception is spurred by media coverage in which young girls with large protruding stomachs are etched in profile and stories of calamity are told (e.g. Time (21 June 2005) magazine). And yet the very notion of 'teenage pregnancy' is a relatively recent one. Depending on the country one talks about, it has been around since between the 1960s and 1980s. In the United States, for example, the rise of ‘teenage pregnancy’ as a social problem was associated with a shift in gendered power relations. Prior to the late 1960s the morally loaded concepts of 'unwed mother' and 'illegitimate child' were used to describe young women who conceived. For the most part, young pregnant women were excluded from society, with the accompanying shame around the lack of proper conjugal arrangements. The use of the term 'teenage pregnancy' removed the implied moral judgment and replaced it with seeming scientific neutrality. Young pregnant women now became publicly visible and thus the object of scientific scrutiny (Arney & Bergen, 1984).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
When veiled silences speak: reflexivity, trouble and repair as methodological tools for interpreting the unspoken in discourse-based data
- Morison, Tracy, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6220 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006280 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468794113488129
- Description: Researchers who have attempted to make sense of silence in data have generally considered literal silences or such things as laughter. We consider the analysis of veiled silences where participants speak, but their speaking serves as ‘noise’ that ‘veils’, or masks, their inability or unwillingness to talk about a (potentially sensitive) topic. Extending Lisa Mazzei’s ‘problematic of silence’ by using our performativity-performance analytical method, we propose the purposeful use of ‘unusual conversational moves’, the deployment of researcher reflexivity, and the analysis of trouble and repair as methods to expose taken-for-granted normative frameworks in veiled silences. We illustrate the potential of these research practices through reference to our study on men’s involvement in reproductive decision-making, in which participants demonstrated an inability to engage with the topic. The veiled silence that this produced, together with what was said, pointed to the operation of procreative heteronormativity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6220 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006280 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468794113488129
- Description: Researchers who have attempted to make sense of silence in data have generally considered literal silences or such things as laughter. We consider the analysis of veiled silences where participants speak, but their speaking serves as ‘noise’ that ‘veils’, or masks, their inability or unwillingness to talk about a (potentially sensitive) topic. Extending Lisa Mazzei’s ‘problematic of silence’ by using our performativity-performance analytical method, we propose the purposeful use of ‘unusual conversational moves’, the deployment of researcher reflexivity, and the analysis of trouble and repair as methods to expose taken-for-granted normative frameworks in veiled silences. We illustrate the potential of these research practices through reference to our study on men’s involvement in reproductive decision-making, in which participants demonstrated an inability to engage with the topic. The veiled silence that this produced, together with what was said, pointed to the operation of procreative heteronormativity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
(Dis)allowances of lesbians’ sexual identities: Lesbian identity construction in racialised, classed, familial, and institutional spaces
- Gibson, Alexandra, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Gibson, Alexandra , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6222 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006536 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353512459580
- Description: This article explores how lesbian identity construction is facilitated and constrained by the raced, classed, gendered, familial, and geographical spaces that women occupy. We present a narrative-discursive analysis of eight lesbians’ stories of sexuality, told within a historically white university in South Africa. Three interpretative repertoires that emerged in the narratives are discussed. The ‘disallowance of lesbian identity in particular racialised and class-based spaces’ repertoire, deployed by black lesbians only, was used to account for their de-emphasis of a lesbian identity through the invocation of a threat of danger and stereotyping. The ‘disjuncture of the (heterosexual) family and lesbian identity’ repertoire emphasised how the expectation of support and care within a family does not necessarily extend to acceptance of a lesbian identity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Gibson, Alexandra , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6222 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006536 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353512459580
- Description: This article explores how lesbian identity construction is facilitated and constrained by the raced, classed, gendered, familial, and geographical spaces that women occupy. We present a narrative-discursive analysis of eight lesbians’ stories of sexuality, told within a historically white university in South Africa. Three interpretative repertoires that emerged in the narratives are discussed. The ‘disallowance of lesbian identity in particular racialised and class-based spaces’ repertoire, deployed by black lesbians only, was used to account for their de-emphasis of a lesbian identity through the invocation of a threat of danger and stereotyping. The ‘disjuncture of the (heterosexual) family and lesbian identity’ repertoire emphasised how the expectation of support and care within a family does not necessarily extend to acceptance of a lesbian identity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Feminist health psychology and abortion : towards a politics of transversal relations of commonality
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:6303 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015959
- Description: In 1992 Speckhard and Rue argued in the Journal of Social Issues for the recognition of a diagnostic category, post-abortion syndrome (PAS). This term was first used in 1981 by Vincent Rue in testimony to the American Congress, but was only formalised in a published paper a decade later. Speckhard and Rue (1992) posit that abortion is a psychosocial stressor that may cause mild distress through to severe trauma, creating the need for a continuum of categories, these being post-abortion distress, post-abortion syndrome and post-abortion psychosis. PAS, which is the main focus of their paper, and which has taken root in some professional language as well as lay anti-abortion discourse, is described as a type of post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Feminist health psychology and abortion : towards a politics of transversal relations of commonality
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:6303 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015959
- Description: In 1992 Speckhard and Rue argued in the Journal of Social Issues for the recognition of a diagnostic category, post-abortion syndrome (PAS). This term was first used in 1981 by Vincent Rue in testimony to the American Congress, but was only formalised in a published paper a decade later. Speckhard and Rue (1992) posit that abortion is a psychosocial stressor that may cause mild distress through to severe trauma, creating the need for a continuum of categories, these being post-abortion distress, post-abortion syndrome and post-abortion psychosis. PAS, which is the main focus of their paper, and which has taken root in some professional language as well as lay anti-abortion discourse, is described as a type of post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Rights discourses in relation to people with intellectual disability: towards an ethics of relations, critique and care
- Mckenzie, Judith A, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Mckenzie, Judith A , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6282 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014123 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2012.631795
- Description: In this paper we argue that human rights approaches for intellectually disabled people have failed to recognise the complexity of rights claims made by and on behalf of this group. Drawing on a research project into discourses of education for intellectually disabled people in the Eastern Cape, South Africa we discern three rights discourses; namely, rights to full participation, rights to special services and rights to protection. These draw off a social model, a medical model and a protective model, respectively. We note that these discourses may be set up in contestation with each other. However, we argue that they can be seen as complementary if viewed within an ethics of care that enables participation. Within this conceptualisation, participation is viewed within relations of care but is subject to a critique that examines the role of context and disciplinary power in constructing dependency.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Mckenzie, Judith A , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6282 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014123 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2012.631795
- Description: In this paper we argue that human rights approaches for intellectually disabled people have failed to recognise the complexity of rights claims made by and on behalf of this group. Drawing on a research project into discourses of education for intellectually disabled people in the Eastern Cape, South Africa we discern three rights discourses; namely, rights to full participation, rights to special services and rights to protection. These draw off a social model, a medical model and a protective model, respectively. We note that these discourses may be set up in contestation with each other. However, we argue that they can be seen as complementary if viewed within an ethics of care that enables participation. Within this conceptualisation, participation is viewed within relations of care but is subject to a critique that examines the role of context and disciplinary power in constructing dependency.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
The deployment of the medico-psychological gaze and disability expertise in relation to children with intellectual disability
- Mckenzie, Judith A, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Mckenzie, Judith A , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6294 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014732 , http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13603116.2010.540042
- Description: In this study, we adopt the concepts of Michel Foucault on the medical gaze and Nikolas Rose on psychological expertise to differentiate between two forms of expertise evident in the education of intellectually disabled children. We draw on a discourse analytic study carried out in South Africa on intellectual disability in relation to educational practice to examine the operation of a medico-psychological gaze that calls for disability expertise in the management of disability. We conclude our discussion by noting that the dichotomy between impairment and disability that is proposed in the social model of disability does little to destabilise the power of the medico-psychological gaze since impairment is conceded to biomedical knowledge as an object of positive knowledge. This tacit acceptance of the medical authority gives sanction to disability expertise that operates in diffuse ways to regulate the educational experience of learners with intellectual disability. The implications of this conception for inclusive education are briefly explored, and further areas for research are suggested.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Mckenzie, Judith A , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6294 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014732 , http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13603116.2010.540042
- Description: In this study, we adopt the concepts of Michel Foucault on the medical gaze and Nikolas Rose on psychological expertise to differentiate between two forms of expertise evident in the education of intellectually disabled children. We draw on a discourse analytic study carried out in South Africa on intellectual disability in relation to educational practice to examine the operation of a medico-psychological gaze that calls for disability expertise in the management of disability. We conclude our discussion by noting that the dichotomy between impairment and disability that is proposed in the social model of disability does little to destabilise the power of the medico-psychological gaze since impairment is conceded to biomedical knowledge as an object of positive knowledge. This tacit acceptance of the medical authority gives sanction to disability expertise that operates in diffuse ways to regulate the educational experience of learners with intellectual disability. The implications of this conception for inclusive education are briefly explored, and further areas for research are suggested.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Culture as a discursive resource opposing legal abortion
- Macleod, Catriona I, Sigcau, Nomakhosi, Luwaca, Pumeza
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Sigcau, Nomakhosi , Luwaca, Pumeza
- Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6293 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014721 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2010.492211
- Description: The notion of ‘culture’ features in the abortion literature to explicate, first, contestation of the meaning of abortion (as in the ‘culture wars’ about abortion), second, the normalisation of abortion in certain countries (as in ‘abortion culture’), third, the response of women to abortion within a particular social milieu and fourth, cross-cultural variability in attitudes towards and experiences of abortion. What is missing is an exploration of how ‘culture’ may be deployed as a discursive resource to oppose legal abortion. In this article, we report on a study conducted in a rural area of South Africa. We conducted focus group discussions utilising hypothetical vignettes to stimulate talk. Although, inconsistencies were evident in participants’ talk, in the context of cultural discussions, abortion was constructed as killing and inevitably destructive of cultural values and traditions. Abortion was equated with colonialist interventions and as something that should be opposed in the preservation of culture. Furthermore, cultural opposition to abortion was rooted in fears around the breakdown of gendered and generational power relations. Examples of how culture may be used in everyday interactions to induce shame and negative experiences are also discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Sigcau, Nomakhosi , Luwaca, Pumeza
- Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6293 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014721 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2010.492211
- Description: The notion of ‘culture’ features in the abortion literature to explicate, first, contestation of the meaning of abortion (as in the ‘culture wars’ about abortion), second, the normalisation of abortion in certain countries (as in ‘abortion culture’), third, the response of women to abortion within a particular social milieu and fourth, cross-cultural variability in attitudes towards and experiences of abortion. What is missing is an exploration of how ‘culture’ may be deployed as a discursive resource to oppose legal abortion. In this article, we report on a study conducted in a rural area of South Africa. We conducted focus group discussions utilising hypothetical vignettes to stimulate talk. Although, inconsistencies were evident in participants’ talk, in the context of cultural discussions, abortion was constructed as killing and inevitably destructive of cultural values and traditions. Abortion was equated with colonialist interventions and as something that should be opposed in the preservation of culture. Furthermore, cultural opposition to abortion was rooted in fears around the breakdown of gendered and generational power relations. Examples of how culture may be used in everyday interactions to induce shame and negative experiences are also discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
‘Adolescence’, pregnancy and abortion: constructing a threat of degeneration
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Adolescent Development Gender identity Gender studies
- Language: English
- Type: Book
- Identifier: vital:545 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014341 , https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13691058.2013.774523
- Description: Why, despite evidence to the contrary, does the narrative of the negative consequences of teenage pregnancy, abortion and childbearing persist? This book outlines a critical view of "teenage pregnancy" and abortion, arguing that the negativity surrounding early reproduction is underpinned by a particular understanding of adolescence. The book traces the invention of "adolescence" and the imaginary wall that the notion of "adolescence" constructs between young people and adults. It examines the entrenched status of "adolescence" within a colonialist discourse that equates development of the individual with the development of civilisation, and the consequent threat of degeneration that is implied in the very notion of "adolescence". Many important issues are explored, such as the ideologies and contradictions contained within the notion of "adolescence"; the invention of teenage pregnancy as a social problem; the construction of abortion as the new social problem; issues of race, culture and tradition in relation to teenage pregnancy; and health service provider practices, specifically in relation to managing risk. In the final chapter, an argument is made for a shift from the signifier "teenage pregnancy" to "unwanted pregnancy". Using data gathered from studies from four continents, this book highlights central issues in the global debate concerning teenage pregnancy. It is suitable for academics, postgraduate and undergraduate students of health psychology, women’s studies, nursing and sociology, as well as practitioners in the fields of youth and social work, medicine and counselling.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Adolescent Development Gender identity Gender studies
- Language: English
- Type: Book
- Identifier: vital:545 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014341 , https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13691058.2013.774523
- Description: Why, despite evidence to the contrary, does the narrative of the negative consequences of teenage pregnancy, abortion and childbearing persist? This book outlines a critical view of "teenage pregnancy" and abortion, arguing that the negativity surrounding early reproduction is underpinned by a particular understanding of adolescence. The book traces the invention of "adolescence" and the imaginary wall that the notion of "adolescence" constructs between young people and adults. It examines the entrenched status of "adolescence" within a colonialist discourse that equates development of the individual with the development of civilisation, and the consequent threat of degeneration that is implied in the very notion of "adolescence". Many important issues are explored, such as the ideologies and contradictions contained within the notion of "adolescence"; the invention of teenage pregnancy as a social problem; the construction of abortion as the new social problem; issues of race, culture and tradition in relation to teenage pregnancy; and health service provider practices, specifically in relation to managing risk. In the final chapter, an argument is made for a shift from the signifier "teenage pregnancy" to "unwanted pregnancy". Using data gathered from studies from four continents, this book highlights central issues in the global debate concerning teenage pregnancy. It is suitable for academics, postgraduate and undergraduate students of health psychology, women’s studies, nursing and sociology, as well as practitioners in the fields of youth and social work, medicine and counselling.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2011
A decade later: follow-up review of South African research on the consequences of and contributory factors in teen-aged pregnancy
- Macleod, Catriona I, Tracey, Tiffany
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Tracey, Tiffany
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6276 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008276 , http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/008124631004000103
- Description: In this paper, we review South African research conducted in the last 10 years on the consequences of and contributory factors in teen-aged pregnancy. We discuss research into the rates of teen-aged pregnancy, the intentionality and wantedness of pregnancy, the disruption of schooling, health issues, consequences for the children, welfare concerns, knowledge and use of contraception, timing of sexual debut, age of partner, coercive sexual relations, cultural factors and health service provision. We compare this discussion to the reviews on the same topic appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology a decade ago. We find that there are several changes in focus in the research on pregnancy amongst young women. We conclude that, in general, there has been an improvement in the breadth of data available, mostly as a result of representative national and local surveys. A better teasing out of nuances around particular issues and a grappling with theoretical issues are also evident in recent research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Tracey, Tiffany
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6276 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008276 , http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/008124631004000103
- Description: In this paper, we review South African research conducted in the last 10 years on the consequences of and contributory factors in teen-aged pregnancy. We discuss research into the rates of teen-aged pregnancy, the intentionality and wantedness of pregnancy, the disruption of schooling, health issues, consequences for the children, welfare concerns, knowledge and use of contraception, timing of sexual debut, age of partner, coercive sexual relations, cultural factors and health service provision. We compare this discussion to the reviews on the same topic appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology a decade ago. We find that there are several changes in focus in the research on pregnancy amongst young women. We conclude that, in general, there has been an improvement in the breadth of data available, mostly as a result of representative national and local surveys. A better teasing out of nuances around particular issues and a grappling with theoretical issues are also evident in recent research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
Danger and disease in sex education : the saturation of ‘adolescence’ with colonialist assumptions
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Article , text
- Identifier: vital:6252 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007870
- Description: The United Nations Development Programme’s Millennium project argues for the importance of sexual and reproductive health in the achievement of all Millennium Development Goals. Sex education programmes, aimed principally at the youth, are thus emphasised and are in line with the specific Millennium Development Goals of reducing the incidence of HIV and improving maternal health. In this paper I analyse recent South African sex education and Life Orientation (a learning area containing sex education) manuals. Danger and disease feature as guiding metaphors for these manuals, with early reproduction and abortion being depicted as wholly deleterious and non-normative relationships leading to disease. I argue, firstly, that these renditions ignore well-designed comparative research that calls into questions the easy assumption of negative consequences accompanying ‘teenage pregnancy’ and abortion, and, secondly, that the persistence of danger and disease in sex education programmes is premised on a discourse of ‘adolescence’. ‘Adolescence’ as a concept is always already saturated with the colonialist foundation of phylogeny re-capitulating ontogeny. Individual development is interweaved with collective development with the threat of degeneration implied in both. This interweaving allows for the instrumentalist goal of sex education in which social changes are sought through changing individuals’ sexual attitudes and behaviour.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Article , text
- Identifier: vital:6252 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007870
- Description: The United Nations Development Programme’s Millennium project argues for the importance of sexual and reproductive health in the achievement of all Millennium Development Goals. Sex education programmes, aimed principally at the youth, are thus emphasised and are in line with the specific Millennium Development Goals of reducing the incidence of HIV and improving maternal health. In this paper I analyse recent South African sex education and Life Orientation (a learning area containing sex education) manuals. Danger and disease feature as guiding metaphors for these manuals, with early reproduction and abortion being depicted as wholly deleterious and non-normative relationships leading to disease. I argue, firstly, that these renditions ignore well-designed comparative research that calls into questions the easy assumption of negative consequences accompanying ‘teenage pregnancy’ and abortion, and, secondly, that the persistence of danger and disease in sex education programmes is premised on a discourse of ‘adolescence’. ‘Adolescence’ as a concept is always already saturated with the colonialist foundation of phylogeny re-capitulating ontogeny. Individual development is interweaved with collective development with the threat of degeneration implied in both. This interweaving allows for the instrumentalist goal of sex education in which social changes are sought through changing individuals’ sexual attitudes and behaviour.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
Review of South African research and interventions in the development of a policy strategy on teen-aged pregnancy
- Macleod, Catriona I, Tracey, Tiffany
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Tracey, Tiffany
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , review
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434425 , vital:73058 , ISBN review , https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Catriona-Macleod-3/publication/43108043_Review_of_South_African_Research_and_Interventions_in_the_Development_of_a_Policy_Strategy_on_Teen-Aged_Pregnancy/links/0c960539ff3f3595e6000000/Review-of-South-African-Research-and-Interventions-in-the-Development-of-a-Policy-Strategy-on-Teen-Aged-Pregnancy.pdf
- Description: In line with international trends, current South African policy and plans identify sexual and reproductive health as a key priority area for health intervention. Both the prevention of unwanted pregnancies amongst teenagers and the provision of support to those who do conceive contribute to the overall aim of enhancing reproductive health. This report represents a first step in the review of youth and adolescent health policy with regards to pregnancy amongst teenagers. It consists of a review of the scientific literature published in the last 10 years supplemented by information gathered in interviews with key informants from a range of key directorates and organisations. Two broad principles frame this report. The first is the adoption of a nuanced and criti cal approach to understanding ‘adolescent pregnancy’ in context. The second is the adoption of a human rights based perspective that underlies much of South Africa’s legislation and policy with respect to youth sexuality and reproduction.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Tracey, Tiffany
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , review
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434425 , vital:73058 , ISBN review , https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Catriona-Macleod-3/publication/43108043_Review_of_South_African_Research_and_Interventions_in_the_Development_of_a_Policy_Strategy_on_Teen-Aged_Pregnancy/links/0c960539ff3f3595e6000000/Review-of-South-African-Research-and-Interventions-in-the-Development-of-a-Policy-Strategy-on-Teen-Aged-Pregnancy.pdf
- Description: In line with international trends, current South African policy and plans identify sexual and reproductive health as a key priority area for health intervention. Both the prevention of unwanted pregnancies amongst teenagers and the provision of support to those who do conceive contribute to the overall aim of enhancing reproductive health. This report represents a first step in the review of youth and adolescent health policy with regards to pregnancy amongst teenagers. It consists of a review of the scientific literature published in the last 10 years supplemented by information gathered in interviews with key informants from a range of key directorates and organisations. Two broad principles frame this report. The first is the adoption of a nuanced and criti cal approach to understanding ‘adolescent pregnancy’ in context. The second is the adoption of a human rights based perspective that underlies much of South Africa’s legislation and policy with respect to youth sexuality and reproduction.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
Theory and South African developmental psychology research and literature
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Book chapter
- Identifier: vital:6300 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015326
- Description: In this chapter we shall examine the theoretical assumptions that drive developmental psychology research and literature in South Africa. The basic underlying models utilised in developmental research may be described as (a) mechanistic; (b) organismic; (c) contextual and (d) social constructionist. A description of the fundamental premises of each of these will be followed by examples of research that utilise the particular approach. In the discussion, some of the controversies that plague developmental psychology research will be highlighted.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Book chapter
- Identifier: vital:6300 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015326
- Description: In this chapter we shall examine the theoretical assumptions that drive developmental psychology research and literature in South Africa. The basic underlying models utilised in developmental research may be described as (a) mechanistic; (b) organismic; (c) contextual and (d) social constructionist. A description of the fundamental premises of each of these will be followed by examples of research that utilise the particular approach. In the discussion, some of the controversies that plague developmental psychology research will be highlighted.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
Why we should avoid the use of the term “Post-Abortion Syndrome” : commentary on Boulind and Edwards (2008)
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6277 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008277
- Description: Boulind and Edwards (2008) present a case study of Grace, a women suffering, in their words, from post-abortion syndrome (PAS). In this commentary I argue that while Boulind and Edwards’ (2008) report is useful in terms of documenting the therapeutic processes engaged in, they would have been better served in not hanging the distress experienced by Grace on the diagnostic category of post-abortion syndrome. Reasons for this are that: PAS is not a recognised category of diagnosis, despite having been initially proposed in 1981; applying a PTSD framework to abortion is questionable; PAS focuses attention on the abortion itself in isolation from the fact that abortion occurs in the context of severely problematic pregnancies and other important socio-cultural stressors; PAS, in the very manner in which it is formulated, invokes to a very complex politics of the foetus. Boulind and Edwards (2008) are careful in their documentation of the complexities of the case, and thus their use of PAS is unfortunate.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6277 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008277
- Description: Boulind and Edwards (2008) present a case study of Grace, a women suffering, in their words, from post-abortion syndrome (PAS). In this commentary I argue that while Boulind and Edwards’ (2008) report is useful in terms of documenting the therapeutic processes engaged in, they would have been better served in not hanging the distress experienced by Grace on the diagnostic category of post-abortion syndrome. Reasons for this are that: PAS is not a recognised category of diagnosis, despite having been initially proposed in 1981; applying a PTSD framework to abortion is questionable; PAS focuses attention on the abortion itself in isolation from the fact that abortion occurs in the context of severely problematic pregnancies and other important socio-cultural stressors; PAS, in the very manner in which it is formulated, invokes to a very complex politics of the foetus. Boulind and Edwards (2008) are careful in their documentation of the complexities of the case, and thus their use of PAS is unfortunate.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
Developing principles for research about young women and abortion: a feminist analysis of difficulties in current South African studies
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6292 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014716
- Description: Soon after the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy (CTOP) Act of 1996, which legalised abortion for the first time, was passed. Since the introduction of the CTOP, a number of studies have been conducted on abortion in South Africa. Many have taken a health-related focus, but some research on young women and abortion has also been conducted, and it is to this (published) research that this article speaks. Two facts highlight the importance of this kind of research in the context of the abortion debate. Firstly, data from the Department of Health indicate that from 1997 to mid-2006, 12% of women undergoing terminations in the provinces in which age-related data are available were under the age of 18 (Department of Health: 2006). Secondly, the subsection of the Act allowing minors to request abortions without parental consent has caused some controversy. For example, the Christian Lawyers Association filed a suit in the Pretoria High Court in 2003, arguing that the above-mentioned subsection was unconstitutional. Their application was not successful. The research conducted on young women and abortion is etched against a background of change and contradiction in young people’s lives in South Africa. In addition to enabling legislation on termination of pregnancy, which is premised on the rights-based approach of the first democratically elected government of South Africa, various opportunities and challenges define the lives of young women. Specifically in relation to sexual and reproductive health, the Department of Health’s National Adolescent Friendly Clinic Initiative aims to make family planning and other services more accessible and acceptable to young women (Dickson-Tetteh et al., 2001). However,HIV/AIDS and “safe sex” programmes define sex as dangerous and individual young women as responsible for close monitoring of heterosexual spaces. The Child Support Grant, shown to enable functional mothering (Case et al., 2005), has sparked controversy in terms of providing perverse incentives for poor young women to conceive (a claim refuted by the research – Makiwane & Udjo, 2005). Young, black and poor women who conceive are, in particular, stigmatised and teenage pregnancy is in many respects racialised (Macleod & Durrheim, 2002). In this paper I highlight some of the problems in the research conducted on young women and abortion in South Africa since the legalisation of abortion. The specific aim of the paper is, through this analysis, to draw out feminist principles that should be considered in this kind of research. My argument draws on postcolonial feminisms that theorise the multiplicity of oppression along gender and, inter alia, race, class, age and location lines (Macleod, 2006). The paper is premised on the assumption that, in a field as fraught with gendered, race and class politics as abortion, regardless of the method used, researchers need to inspect the ideological implications of their work, and to be vigilant about their scholastic practices, and any claims legitimately made.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6292 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014716
- Description: Soon after the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy (CTOP) Act of 1996, which legalised abortion for the first time, was passed. Since the introduction of the CTOP, a number of studies have been conducted on abortion in South Africa. Many have taken a health-related focus, but some research on young women and abortion has also been conducted, and it is to this (published) research that this article speaks. Two facts highlight the importance of this kind of research in the context of the abortion debate. Firstly, data from the Department of Health indicate that from 1997 to mid-2006, 12% of women undergoing terminations in the provinces in which age-related data are available were under the age of 18 (Department of Health: 2006). Secondly, the subsection of the Act allowing minors to request abortions without parental consent has caused some controversy. For example, the Christian Lawyers Association filed a suit in the Pretoria High Court in 2003, arguing that the above-mentioned subsection was unconstitutional. Their application was not successful. The research conducted on young women and abortion is etched against a background of change and contradiction in young people’s lives in South Africa. In addition to enabling legislation on termination of pregnancy, which is premised on the rights-based approach of the first democratically elected government of South Africa, various opportunities and challenges define the lives of young women. Specifically in relation to sexual and reproductive health, the Department of Health’s National Adolescent Friendly Clinic Initiative aims to make family planning and other services more accessible and acceptable to young women (Dickson-Tetteh et al., 2001). However,HIV/AIDS and “safe sex” programmes define sex as dangerous and individual young women as responsible for close monitoring of heterosexual spaces. The Child Support Grant, shown to enable functional mothering (Case et al., 2005), has sparked controversy in terms of providing perverse incentives for poor young women to conceive (a claim refuted by the research – Makiwane & Udjo, 2005). Young, black and poor women who conceive are, in particular, stigmatised and teenage pregnancy is in many respects racialised (Macleod & Durrheim, 2002). In this paper I highlight some of the problems in the research conducted on young women and abortion in South Africa since the legalisation of abortion. The specific aim of the paper is, through this analysis, to draw out feminist principles that should be considered in this kind of research. My argument draws on postcolonial feminisms that theorise the multiplicity of oppression along gender and, inter alia, race, class, age and location lines (Macleod, 2006). The paper is premised on the assumption that, in a field as fraught with gendered, race and class politics as abortion, regardless of the method used, researchers need to inspect the ideological implications of their work, and to be vigilant about their scholastic practices, and any claims legitimately made.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
‘Who? what?’: an uninducted view of towards a new psychology of women from post-Apartheid South Africa
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6251 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007869 , http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0959353508092088
- Description: From the text: Towards a New Psychology of Women (TPNW) promises a new psychology of “women”. On the cover of the second edition, the Toronto Globe and Mail is cited as acclaiming the book as “nothing short of revolutionary” as it “set out to recognize, re-define and understand the day-to-day experience of women”. But when we take a closer look at these “women” we discover that they are in fact “white”, (for the most part) middle-class women living in heterosexual relationships in a liberal democracy. This kind of exclusionary inclusion, in which the use of the generic term “woman” disguises the normative assumptions made about the race, class, sexual orientation and location of women, replicates the phallocentrism evidenced in the normalising masculinist terms “mankind” or “Man”. By now, of course, these kinds of critiques of “white” Western feminism by African American writers (e.g. Collins, 1999) postcolonial feminists (e.g. Mohanty, 1991), African feminists (e.g. Ogundipe-Leslie, 1994; Mangena, 2003), and queer theorists (e.g. Jackson, 1999) are well known.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6251 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007869 , http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0959353508092088
- Description: From the text: Towards a New Psychology of Women (TPNW) promises a new psychology of “women”. On the cover of the second edition, the Toronto Globe and Mail is cited as acclaiming the book as “nothing short of revolutionary” as it “set out to recognize, re-define and understand the day-to-day experience of women”. But when we take a closer look at these “women” we discover that they are in fact “white”, (for the most part) middle-class women living in heterosexual relationships in a liberal democracy. This kind of exclusionary inclusion, in which the use of the generic term “woman” disguises the normative assumptions made about the race, class, sexual orientation and location of women, replicates the phallocentrism evidenced in the normalising masculinist terms “mankind” or “Man”. By now, of course, these kinds of critiques of “white” Western feminism by African American writers (e.g. Collins, 1999) postcolonial feminists (e.g. Mohanty, 1991), African feminists (e.g. Ogundipe-Leslie, 1994; Mangena, 2003), and queer theorists (e.g. Jackson, 1999) are well known.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
The risk of phallocentrism in masculinities studies: how a revision of the concept of patriarchy might help
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6216 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006268
- Description: In this article I critique South African work on masculinities through a fine grained reading of Morrell’s introductions to three texts. While this work appears, on first reading, to contribute to pro-feminist theorising, I argue that it inadvertently falls into a phallocentric trap. This is achieved in three ways: firstly, and most crudely, through conflating women and men into a singular, universal model that is in reality the masculine appearing as the universal; secondly, and more subtly, through concentrating almost exclusively on men and masculinities, thereby marginalising women (again); and thirdly, through constructing multiplicities of masculinities – this allows men to resist hegemonic masculinity, but never undo masculinity itself. In this way, the possibility of deconstructing the feminine/masculine binary recedes and the concept of patriarchy gets sidelined. I argue for a reinsertion of the notion of patriarchy into our study of gender, but also that the very notion of patriarchy needs revision in order to accommodate the multiple fissures that occur between men.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6216 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006268
- Description: In this article I critique South African work on masculinities through a fine grained reading of Morrell’s introductions to three texts. While this work appears, on first reading, to contribute to pro-feminist theorising, I argue that it inadvertently falls into a phallocentric trap. This is achieved in three ways: firstly, and most crudely, through conflating women and men into a singular, universal model that is in reality the masculine appearing as the universal; secondly, and more subtly, through concentrating almost exclusively on men and masculinities, thereby marginalising women (again); and thirdly, through constructing multiplicities of masculinities – this allows men to resist hegemonic masculinity, but never undo masculinity itself. In this way, the possibility of deconstructing the feminine/masculine binary recedes and the concept of patriarchy gets sidelined. I argue for a reinsertion of the notion of patriarchy into our study of gender, but also that the very notion of patriarchy needs revision in order to accommodate the multiple fissures that occur between men.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
Re-deploying Parker, post-colonially: review essay
- Macleod, Catriona I, Wilbraham, Lindy
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Wilbraham, Lindy
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6275 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008275
- Description: In this paper we review two of Ian Parker’s recent books: Critical discursive psychology and Qualitative psychology: Introducing radical research. Although the books address different audiences (academics versus students) and talk to different problematics (theory versus research), taken together they represent useful resources for those wishing to take a critical stance with regards to the standard fare of psychology, to use critical theory in understanding social and psychological phenomena, and to engage in progressive research. As such, both theory and research methods appear as “tools”, and we suggest reading Parker sideways, shifting his intellectual trajectory into directions that illuminate colonial and post-colonial issues through empirical/textual application to real South African contexts. By way of illustration, we offer a post-colonial reading of Parker’s work on post-modernism. Concluding comments on tactics for a “post-colonial analysis of discourses” are offered.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Wilbraham, Lindy
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6275 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008275
- Description: In this paper we review two of Ian Parker’s recent books: Critical discursive psychology and Qualitative psychology: Introducing radical research. Although the books address different audiences (academics versus students) and talk to different problematics (theory versus research), taken together they represent useful resources for those wishing to take a critical stance with regards to the standard fare of psychology, to use critical theory in understanding social and psychological phenomena, and to engage in progressive research. As such, both theory and research methods appear as “tools”, and we suggest reading Parker sideways, shifting his intellectual trajectory into directions that illuminate colonial and post-colonial issues through empirical/textual application to real South African contexts. By way of illustration, we offer a post-colonial reading of Parker’s work on post-modernism. Concluding comments on tactics for a “post-colonial analysis of discourses” are offered.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
The management of risk: adolescent sexual and reproductive health in South Africa
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6302 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015958
- Description: Scientific discourse allows for the calculation of negative outcomes attendant on conception and birth during adolescence, thereby producing a discourse of risk. The management of risk allows for the deployment of governmental apparatuses of security. Security, as outlined by Foucault, is a specific principle of political method and practice aimed at defending and securing a national population. In this paper I analyse how techniques of security are deployed in the interactions between health service providers and young women seeking contraceptive and reproductive assistance at a regional hospital in South Africa, and how racialised and gendered politics are strategically deployed within these techniques. Security combines with various governmental techniques to produce its effects. The techniques used in this instance include pastoral care, liberal humanism, the incitement to governmental self-formation, and, in the last instance, sovereign power.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6302 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015958
- Description: Scientific discourse allows for the calculation of negative outcomes attendant on conception and birth during adolescence, thereby producing a discourse of risk. The management of risk allows for the deployment of governmental apparatuses of security. Security, as outlined by Foucault, is a specific principle of political method and practice aimed at defending and securing a national population. In this paper I analyse how techniques of security are deployed in the interactions between health service providers and young women seeking contraceptive and reproductive assistance at a regional hospital in South Africa, and how racialised and gendered politics are strategically deployed within these techniques. Security combines with various governmental techniques to produce its effects. The techniques used in this instance include pastoral care, liberal humanism, the incitement to governmental self-formation, and, in the last instance, sovereign power.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006