From deviant choice to feminist issue: An historical analysis of scholarship on voluntary childlessness (1920–2013)
- Lynch, Ingrid, Morison, Tracy, Macleod, Catriona I, Mijas, Magdalena, du Toit, Ryan, Shivakumar, Seemanthini T
- Authors: Lynch, Ingrid , Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I , Mijas, Magdalena , du Toit, Ryan , Shivakumar, Seemanthini T
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434319 , vital:73048 , ISBN 978-1-78754-361-4 , https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/978-1-78754-361-420181002/full/html
- Description: Existing reviews of research on voluntary childlessness generally take the form of narrative summaries, focusing on main topics investigated over time. In this chapter, the authors extend previous literature reviews to conduct a systematic review and content analysis of socio-historical and geopolitical aspects of knowledge production about voluntary childlessness. The dataset comprised 195 peer-reviewed articles that were coded and analysed to explore, inter alia: the main topic under investigation; country location of authors; sample characteristics; theoretical framework and methodology. The findings are discussed in relation to the socio-historical contexts of knowledge production, drawing on theoretical insights concerned with the politics of location, representation and research practice. The shifts in the topics of research from the 1970s, when substantial research first emerged, uphold the view of voluntary childlessness as non-normative. With some regional variation, knowledge is dominated by quantitative, hard science methodologies and mostly generated about privileged, married women living in the global North. The implications of this for future research concerned with reproductive freedom are outlined.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lynch, Ingrid , Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I , Mijas, Magdalena , du Toit, Ryan , Shivakumar, Seemanthini T
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434319 , vital:73048 , ISBN 978-1-78754-361-4 , https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/978-1-78754-361-420181002/full/html
- Description: Existing reviews of research on voluntary childlessness generally take the form of narrative summaries, focusing on main topics investigated over time. In this chapter, the authors extend previous literature reviews to conduct a systematic review and content analysis of socio-historical and geopolitical aspects of knowledge production about voluntary childlessness. The dataset comprised 195 peer-reviewed articles that were coded and analysed to explore, inter alia: the main topic under investigation; country location of authors; sample characteristics; theoretical framework and methodology. The findings are discussed in relation to the socio-historical contexts of knowledge production, drawing on theoretical insights concerned with the politics of location, representation and research practice. The shifts in the topics of research from the 1970s, when substantial research first emerged, uphold the view of voluntary childlessness as non-normative. With some regional variation, knowledge is dominated by quantitative, hard science methodologies and mostly generated about privileged, married women living in the global North. The implications of this for future research concerned with reproductive freedom are outlined.
- Full Text:
Introduction: Blurring Boundaries
- Mnyaka, Phindezwa, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Mnyaka, Phindezwa , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434252 , vital:73042 , ISBN 978-3-319-74720-0 , https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-74721-7_9
- Description: This chapter introduces the section on blurring boundaries in research. The chapters within this section unpack the ethical dilemmas that researchers negotiate when they find themselves stepping outside their roles as researchers in the field. Research encounters presuppose particular boundaries, depending on the methodology employed and the research questions posed. However, participants may identify researchers differently, compelling them to respond in unanticipated ways as possibly therapists, clinicians, interlocutors, and activists. Collectively, the authors of the chapters in this section explore the ethical implications of blurring such boundaries. They unpack the significance of various forms of intimacies that may emerge while undertaking research, how researchers are positioned as agents of social change, and how researchers negotiate their statuses as insiders and outsiders in fieldwork.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Mnyaka, Phindezwa , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434252 , vital:73042 , ISBN 978-3-319-74720-0 , https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-74721-7_9
- Description: This chapter introduces the section on blurring boundaries in research. The chapters within this section unpack the ethical dilemmas that researchers negotiate when they find themselves stepping outside their roles as researchers in the field. Research encounters presuppose particular boundaries, depending on the methodology employed and the research questions posed. However, participants may identify researchers differently, compelling them to respond in unanticipated ways as possibly therapists, clinicians, interlocutors, and activists. Collectively, the authors of the chapters in this section explore the ethical implications of blurring such boundaries. They unpack the significance of various forms of intimacies that may emerge while undertaking research, how researchers are positioned as agents of social change, and how researchers negotiate their statuses as insiders and outsiders in fieldwork.
- Full Text:
Introduction: The politics of anonymity and confidentiality
- Macleod, Catriona I, Mnyaka, Phindezwa
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Mnyaka, Phindezwa
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434237 , vital:73041 , ISBN 978-3-319-74720-0 , https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-74721-7_15
- Description: Ethics committees standardly require that the researchers address questions concerning anonymity and confidentiality. The conventional practice is to ensure that participants’ names and identifying details are expunged from public records of the research and that high levels of confidentiality of data are maintained in the research process. In this introduction, we outline how authors of chapters in this section ask questions concerning these imperatives, including circumstances where participants actively want their identity revealed and their voice heard or when anonymising might not be possible or may further disadvantage marginalised populations. We explore the argument made by authors that the automatic anonymising of data and the imposition of confidentiality can constrain ethical conduct.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Mnyaka, Phindezwa
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434237 , vital:73041 , ISBN 978-3-319-74720-0 , https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-74721-7_15
- Description: Ethics committees standardly require that the researchers address questions concerning anonymity and confidentiality. The conventional practice is to ensure that participants’ names and identifying details are expunged from public records of the research and that high levels of confidentiality of data are maintained in the research process. In this introduction, we outline how authors of chapters in this section ask questions concerning these imperatives, including circumstances where participants actively want their identity revealed and their voice heard or when anonymising might not be possible or may further disadvantage marginalised populations. We explore the argument made by authors that the automatic anonymising of data and the imposition of confidentiality can constrain ethical conduct.
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The Palgrave handbook of ethics in critical research
- Macleod, Catriona I, Marx, Jacqueline, Mnyaka, Phindezwa, Treharne, Gareth J
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Marx, Jacqueline , Mnyaka, Phindezwa , Treharne, Gareth J
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434266 , vital:73043 , ISBN 978-3-319-74720-0 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74721-7
- Description: The idea for this handbook was born at the 9th Biennial International Society of Critical Health Psychology Conference that was held in Grahamstown, South Africa, in July 2015. As such, our first acknowledgement goes to the International Society of Critical Health Psychology (ISCHP), especially members of the Executive Committee and the Conference Organising Committee, for creating the kind of space in which innovative and critical debates and dialogues are fostered and in which like-minded people from across the globe may collaborate.
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- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Marx, Jacqueline , Mnyaka, Phindezwa , Treharne, Gareth J
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434266 , vital:73043 , ISBN 978-3-319-74720-0 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74721-7
- Description: The idea for this handbook was born at the 9th Biennial International Society of Critical Health Psychology Conference that was held in Grahamstown, South Africa, in July 2015. As such, our first acknowledgement goes to the International Society of Critical Health Psychology (ISCHP), especially members of the Executive Committee and the Conference Organising Committee, for creating the kind of space in which innovative and critical debates and dialogues are fostered and in which like-minded people from across the globe may collaborate.
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Traversing ethical imperatives: Learning from stories from the field
- Treharne, Gareth J, Mnyaka, Phindezwa, Marx, Jacqueline, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Treharne, Gareth J , Mnyaka, Phindezwa , Marx, Jacqueline , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434279 , vital:73044 , ISBN 978-3-319-74720-0 , https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-74721-7_28
- Description: In this chapter we integrate the lessons that are shared across this handbook through the rich, storied examples of ethics in critical research. We outline central themes to the handbook that cut across all of the sections. The notions of vulnerability and harm are pertinent in critical research not only as a duty to protect participants, but also as signifiers that are mobilised and can constrain what is achieved in critical research. The stories told in this handbook contribute to ongoing learning about ethics in critical research by drawing on ethically important moments in the unfolding research processes. We ask whether ethical critical research requires relational models of reciprocity between researchers and participants/co-researchers and appreciation of situated ethics in the bureaucratic review processes.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Treharne, Gareth J , Mnyaka, Phindezwa , Marx, Jacqueline , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434279 , vital:73044 , ISBN 978-3-319-74720-0 , https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-74721-7_28
- Description: In this chapter we integrate the lessons that are shared across this handbook through the rich, storied examples of ethics in critical research. We outline central themes to the handbook that cut across all of the sections. The notions of vulnerability and harm are pertinent in critical research not only as a duty to protect participants, but also as signifiers that are mobilised and can constrain what is achieved in critical research. The stories told in this handbook contribute to ongoing learning about ethics in critical research by drawing on ethically important moments in the unfolding research processes. We ask whether ethical critical research requires relational models of reciprocity between researchers and participants/co-researchers and appreciation of situated ethics in the bureaucratic review processes.
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"The man can use that power", "she got courage" and "inimba": discursive resources in counsellors' talk of intimate partner violence: implications for practice
- Fleischack, Annie, Macleod, Catriona I, Böhmke, Werner
- Authors: Fleischack, Annie , Macleod, Catriona I , Böhmke, Werner
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67498 , vital:29103 , http://dx.doi.org/10.15270/52-2-550
- Description: Publisher version , Given the high rate of intimate partner violence (IPV), understanding how counsellors talk about IPV and their interventions is important. The authors conducted narrative interviews with eight counsellors from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with IPV. Using narrative-discursive methodology, this qualitative study paid attention to the discursive resources that the participants drew upon. Two broad clusters of discursive resources and one contradictory (‘nurturing femininity’) discourse emerged. The first cluster engenders a sense of helplessness in the face of overwhelming power relations; the second enables the counsellors to foresee positive outcomes for their counselling. Implications for counselling include emphasising enabling discourses, highlighting multiplicities of gender, and wider-scale interventions.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Fleischack, Annie , Macleod, Catriona I , Böhmke, Werner
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67498 , vital:29103 , http://dx.doi.org/10.15270/52-2-550
- Description: Publisher version , Given the high rate of intimate partner violence (IPV), understanding how counsellors talk about IPV and their interventions is important. The authors conducted narrative interviews with eight counsellors from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with IPV. Using narrative-discursive methodology, this qualitative study paid attention to the discursive resources that the participants drew upon. Two broad clusters of discursive resources and one contradictory (‘nurturing femininity’) discourse emerged. The first cluster engenders a sense of helplessness in the face of overwhelming power relations; the second enables the counsellors to foresee positive outcomes for their counselling. Implications for counselling include emphasising enabling discourses, highlighting multiplicities of gender, and wider-scale interventions.
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A contemporary phenomenology of menstruation: Understanding the body in situation and as situation in public health interventions to address menstruation-related challenges
- Kelland, Lindsay, Paphitis, Sharli A, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Kelland, Lindsay , Paphitis, Sharli A , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434293 , vital:73045 , ISBN 1879-243X , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.09.004
- Description: Social science and public health research has pointed to, firstly, the challenges women face in terms of the management of menstruation and, secondly, to the negative symbolic associations made with the menstruating body. This research, however, seldom engages with philosophical issues relating to embodied subjectivity in order to explain and understand the trends noted. In this paper, we attempt to bridge the divide between feminist theory and current research on the menstruation-related challenges facing women today. We provide a feminist phenomenological account of menstruation in which women's shared bodily lived experiences of menstruation—the body as situation—are set within contexts that enable and/or restrain freedom—the body in situation. This account allows us to understand the universal and differentiated aspects of menstruation and menstrual management, thereby providing a nuanced picture of the interplay between the physical occurrence of menstruation, the symbolic associations made with menstruation, and the socio-material, historical and political conditions within which women live. Such an account, we suggest, should inform advocacy around public policy and institutional civic society that promotes the freedom of women to engage in important life projects, and ground public health interventions around menstruation related challenges.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Kelland, Lindsay , Paphitis, Sharli A , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434293 , vital:73045 , ISBN 1879-243X , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.09.004
- Description: Social science and public health research has pointed to, firstly, the challenges women face in terms of the management of menstruation and, secondly, to the negative symbolic associations made with the menstruating body. This research, however, seldom engages with philosophical issues relating to embodied subjectivity in order to explain and understand the trends noted. In this paper, we attempt to bridge the divide between feminist theory and current research on the menstruation-related challenges facing women today. We provide a feminist phenomenological account of menstruation in which women's shared bodily lived experiences of menstruation—the body as situation—are set within contexts that enable and/or restrain freedom—the body in situation. This account allows us to understand the universal and differentiated aspects of menstruation and menstrual management, thereby providing a nuanced picture of the interplay between the physical occurrence of menstruation, the symbolic associations made with menstruation, and the socio-material, historical and political conditions within which women live. Such an account, we suggest, should inform advocacy around public policy and institutional civic society that promotes the freedom of women to engage in important life projects, and ground public health interventions around menstruation related challenges.
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Abortion in legal, social, and healthcare contexts
- Marecek, Jeanne, Macleod, Catriona I, Hoggart, Lesley
- Authors: Marecek, Jeanne , Macleod, Catriona I , Hoggart, Lesley
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68478 , vital:29262 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353516689521
- Description: Publisher version , From Introduction: The subject of abortion is both timely and of high relevance to feminists. In the past few months, women’s access to abortion has been contested in various parts of the world. In many countries in Latin America, the Zika outbreak raised the demand for abortions among pregnant women who had contracted (or feared contracting) the virus, with its risk of severe foetal abnormalities. In Poland, mass demonstrations by women succeeded in turning back proposed legislation prohibiting abortions. The outcome of the U.S. elections in late 2016 raised grave concerns about the future of American women’s access to abortion, which was already limited by stringent regulations and funding restrictions. We chose the title ‘‘Abortion in Context’’ to signal that we sought to publish work that moved beyond examining abortion as a ‘‘stress experience’’ encountered by individual women or as a possible precursor of mental illness. Our goal was to assemble a set of articles that would prompt readers to think critically about practices and discourses surrounding abortion. We further hoped to include work that would address the meanings and practices of abortion in the global South and among minoritized groups in the global North. We were pleased by the enthusiastic response to our Call for Papers. We note that Eklund and Purewal (2017, this issue) address abortion in China and India. Thoradeniya’s (2017, this issue) review of Abortion in Asia (Whittaker, 2010) provides a glimpse of the complex and varied practices, policies, and experiences of abortion in parts of South and Southeast Asia. Chiweshe, Mavuso, and Macleod (whose work will appear in Part 2 of the Special Issue) take up abortion in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Le Grice and Braun (whose work will also appear in Part 2), examine Maori perspectives on abortion. In this Part 1 of the Special Issue, we present work that locates abortion practices and policies in legal, social, and healthcare contexts. Women’s efforts to exercise agency with regard to bodily integrity in the context of pregnancy are shaped most obviously by the legal regulations in the jurisdictions where they live, but they are also shaped by social and cultural issues, biotechnological advances, and healthcare systems. The articles offer detailed examinations of some of these complex contextual framings of abortion.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Marecek, Jeanne , Macleod, Catriona I , Hoggart, Lesley
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68478 , vital:29262 , https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353516689521
- Description: Publisher version , From Introduction: The subject of abortion is both timely and of high relevance to feminists. In the past few months, women’s access to abortion has been contested in various parts of the world. In many countries in Latin America, the Zika outbreak raised the demand for abortions among pregnant women who had contracted (or feared contracting) the virus, with its risk of severe foetal abnormalities. In Poland, mass demonstrations by women succeeded in turning back proposed legislation prohibiting abortions. The outcome of the U.S. elections in late 2016 raised grave concerns about the future of American women’s access to abortion, which was already limited by stringent regulations and funding restrictions. We chose the title ‘‘Abortion in Context’’ to signal that we sought to publish work that moved beyond examining abortion as a ‘‘stress experience’’ encountered by individual women or as a possible precursor of mental illness. Our goal was to assemble a set of articles that would prompt readers to think critically about practices and discourses surrounding abortion. We further hoped to include work that would address the meanings and practices of abortion in the global South and among minoritized groups in the global North. We were pleased by the enthusiastic response to our Call for Papers. We note that Eklund and Purewal (2017, this issue) address abortion in China and India. Thoradeniya’s (2017, this issue) review of Abortion in Asia (Whittaker, 2010) provides a glimpse of the complex and varied practices, policies, and experiences of abortion in parts of South and Southeast Asia. Chiweshe, Mavuso, and Macleod (whose work will appear in Part 2 of the Special Issue) take up abortion in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Le Grice and Braun (whose work will also appear in Part 2), examine Maori perspectives on abortion. In this Part 1 of the Special Issue, we present work that locates abortion practices and policies in legal, social, and healthcare contexts. Women’s efforts to exercise agency with regard to bodily integrity in the context of pregnancy are shaped most obviously by the legal regulations in the jurisdictions where they live, but they are also shaped by social and cultural issues, biotechnological advances, and healthcare systems. The articles offer detailed examinations of some of these complex contextual framings of abortion.
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Postcolonialism and psychology: Growing interest and promising potential
- Macleod, Catriona I, Bhatia, Sunil, Kessi, Shose
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Bhatia, Sunil , Kessi, Shose
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434332 , vital:73049 , ISBN 9781473925212 , https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-sage-handbook-of-qualitative-research-in-psychology/book245472#description
- Description: In the first edition of this book published in 2008, we categorized postcolonial psychology as embryonic: at the time very few psychologists were using postcolonial theories and approaches to illuminate broadly psychological issues. Since then, there has been some growing interest, to which we refer below. Nevertheless, despite recent contributions to postcolonial psychology literature under the banner of critical psychology (Bhatia, 2014; Moane and Sonn, 2015; Painter, 2015; Teo, 2005) as well as a number of books tackling the psychological in relation to postcolonial theory in the last decade (Anderson et al., 2011; Bhatia, 2007; David, 2011; Good et al., 2008; Hook, 2012; Macleod, 2011; Moane, 2011), postcolonial psychology is far from being an established or significant sub-discipline of psychology. The growing interest and positive responses to some of the work (eg Parker, 2012) must, however, be seen as encouraging in demonstrating the promising potential of postcolonial approaches in psychology, particularly in the political and social conditions of the twenty-first century. By way of orienting the reader, we start this chapter by outlining some of the key tenets of postcolonialism. This must of necessity be brief and unsatisfactory, not least because postcolonialism itself is a slippery term, representing the gathering together of a variety of theoretical writings and understandings under one rubric. Despite the increasing interest in postcolonialism in psychology, there has been little systematic discussion of the implications of this approach in terms of research. We lay the foundations of this discussion by unpicking the possibilities of postcolonialism in understanding the politics of research, specifically the politics of location, the politics of representation, and the politics of practice. We go on to consider the broad research aims postcolonial psychology should address, as well as productive sites for such research. We provide examples of qualitative research in postcolonialism.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Bhatia, Sunil , Kessi, Shose
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434332 , vital:73049 , ISBN 9781473925212 , https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-sage-handbook-of-qualitative-research-in-psychology/book245472#description
- Description: In the first edition of this book published in 2008, we categorized postcolonial psychology as embryonic: at the time very few psychologists were using postcolonial theories and approaches to illuminate broadly psychological issues. Since then, there has been some growing interest, to which we refer below. Nevertheless, despite recent contributions to postcolonial psychology literature under the banner of critical psychology (Bhatia, 2014; Moane and Sonn, 2015; Painter, 2015; Teo, 2005) as well as a number of books tackling the psychological in relation to postcolonial theory in the last decade (Anderson et al., 2011; Bhatia, 2007; David, 2011; Good et al., 2008; Hook, 2012; Macleod, 2011; Moane, 2011), postcolonial psychology is far from being an established or significant sub-discipline of psychology. The growing interest and positive responses to some of the work (eg Parker, 2012) must, however, be seen as encouraging in demonstrating the promising potential of postcolonial approaches in psychology, particularly in the political and social conditions of the twenty-first century. By way of orienting the reader, we start this chapter by outlining some of the key tenets of postcolonialism. This must of necessity be brief and unsatisfactory, not least because postcolonialism itself is a slippery term, representing the gathering together of a variety of theoretical writings and understandings under one rubric. Despite the increasing interest in postcolonialism in psychology, there has been little systematic discussion of the implications of this approach in terms of research. We lay the foundations of this discussion by unpicking the possibilities of postcolonialism in understanding the politics of research, specifically the politics of location, the politics of representation, and the politics of practice. We go on to consider the broad research aims postcolonial psychology should address, as well as productive sites for such research. We provide examples of qualitative research in postcolonialism.
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‘Adolescent’ sexual and reproductive health: Controversies, rights, and justice
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434348 , vital:73050 , ISBN 978-3-319-40741-8 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40743-2_9
- Description: Adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a field beset with a number of controversies, e.g. whether and to what kind of sexuality education young people should be exposed and whether teenagers should be able to decide on abortion without parental consent. It is within these controversies as well as local social dynamics that public SRH interventions aimed at adolescents take place. I start this chapter with an outline of the major global public health approach to adolescent SRH: the health and human rights framework. I then briefly overview some of the key issues concerning sexuality education, contraception, pregnancy, abortion, HIV, and lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) issues among adolescents, concentrating on questions surrounding taken-for-granted assumptions and health injustices. With this as a backdrop, I argue for a sexual and reproductive justice approach that draws from transnational feminism. Such an approach would focus on health injustices, analyze gendered power relations that cohere around sexuality and reproduction among adolescents, highlight the intersectionality of race, class, location, religion, ability and sexual orientation in health outcomes, and deconstruct normative frameworks and taken-for-granted assumptions.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434348 , vital:73050 , ISBN 978-3-319-40741-8 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40743-2_9
- Description: Adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a field beset with a number of controversies, e.g. whether and to what kind of sexuality education young people should be exposed and whether teenagers should be able to decide on abortion without parental consent. It is within these controversies as well as local social dynamics that public SRH interventions aimed at adolescents take place. I start this chapter with an outline of the major global public health approach to adolescent SRH: the health and human rights framework. I then briefly overview some of the key issues concerning sexuality education, contraception, pregnancy, abortion, HIV, and lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) issues among adolescents, concentrating on questions surrounding taken-for-granted assumptions and health injustices. With this as a backdrop, I argue for a sexual and reproductive justice approach that draws from transnational feminism. Such an approach would focus on health injustices, analyze gendered power relations that cohere around sexuality and reproduction among adolescents, highlight the intersectionality of race, class, location, religion, ability and sexual orientation in health outcomes, and deconstruct normative frameworks and taken-for-granted assumptions.
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A discourse of disconnect : young people from the Eastern Cape talk about the failure of adult communications to provide habitable sexual subject positions
- Jearey-Graham, Nicola, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Jearey-Graham, Nicola , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6308 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018864 , http://0-hdl.handle.net.wam.seals.ac.za/10520/EJC171669
- Description: Face-to-face adult communication with young people about sexuality is, for the most part, assigned to two main groups of people: educators tasked with teaching schoolbased sexuality education that is provided as part of the compulsory Life Orientation (LO) learning area, and parents. In this paper, we report on a study conducted with Further Education and Training College students in an Eastern Cape town. Using a discursive psychology lens, we analysed data from, first, a written question on what participants remember being taught about sexuality in LO classes and, second, focus group discussions held with mixed and same-sex groups. Discussions were structured around the sexualities of high school learners and the LO sexuality education that participants received at high school. We highlight participants’ common deployment of a ‘discourse of disconnect’ in their talk. In this discourse, the messages of ‘risk’ and ‘responsibility’ contained in adult face-to-face communications, by both parents and LO teachers, are depicted as being delivered through inadequate or nonrelational styles of communication, and as largely irrelevant to participants’ lives. Neither of these sources of communication was seen as understanding the realities of youth sexualities or as creating habitable or performable sexual subject positions. The dominance of this ‘discourse of disconnect’ has implications for how sexuality education and parent communication interventions are conducted.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Jearey-Graham, Nicola , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6308 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018864 , http://0-hdl.handle.net.wam.seals.ac.za/10520/EJC171669
- Description: Face-to-face adult communication with young people about sexuality is, for the most part, assigned to two main groups of people: educators tasked with teaching schoolbased sexuality education that is provided as part of the compulsory Life Orientation (LO) learning area, and parents. In this paper, we report on a study conducted with Further Education and Training College students in an Eastern Cape town. Using a discursive psychology lens, we analysed data from, first, a written question on what participants remember being taught about sexuality in LO classes and, second, focus group discussions held with mixed and same-sex groups. Discussions were structured around the sexualities of high school learners and the LO sexuality education that participants received at high school. We highlight participants’ common deployment of a ‘discourse of disconnect’ in their talk. In this discourse, the messages of ‘risk’ and ‘responsibility’ contained in adult face-to-face communications, by both parents and LO teachers, are depicted as being delivered through inadequate or nonrelational styles of communication, and as largely irrelevant to participants’ lives. Neither of these sources of communication was seen as understanding the realities of youth sexualities or as creating habitable or performable sexual subject positions. The dominance of this ‘discourse of disconnect’ has implications for how sexuality education and parent communication interventions are conducted.
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A narrative-discursive analysis of abortion decision making in Zimbabwe:
- Chiweshe, Malvern T, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Chiweshe, Malvern T , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143882 , vital:38291 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: The available research on abortion-decision-making tends to focus on the ‘factors’ or ‘influences’ that are seen to affect abortion decision-making. This approach is rarely able to account for the complex, multi-faceted nature of abortion decision-making, and is often not located within a framework that can unpick the complex array of power relations that underpin the ‘process’ of abortion decision-making. Data reported on in this paper were collected from three sites in Zimbabwe. Narrative interviews were conducted with 18 women who had terminated pregnancies (six at each site) and semi-structured interviews were conducted with six service providers. The women employed discursive resources around stigma, religion, health and culture in telling stories around abortion shame, abortion as justified and the fearful, secretive act of abortion. Comparisons of the way women positioned themselves and how they were positioned by health service providers point to the availability and embeddedness of social discourses and power relations that work to enable/constrain reproductive justice.
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- Authors: Chiweshe, Malvern T , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143882 , vital:38291 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: The available research on abortion-decision-making tends to focus on the ‘factors’ or ‘influences’ that are seen to affect abortion decision-making. This approach is rarely able to account for the complex, multi-faceted nature of abortion decision-making, and is often not located within a framework that can unpick the complex array of power relations that underpin the ‘process’ of abortion decision-making. Data reported on in this paper were collected from three sites in Zimbabwe. Narrative interviews were conducted with 18 women who had terminated pregnancies (six at each site) and semi-structured interviews were conducted with six service providers. The women employed discursive resources around stigma, religion, health and culture in telling stories around abortion shame, abortion as justified and the fearful, secretive act of abortion. Comparisons of the way women positioned themselves and how they were positioned by health service providers point to the availability and embeddedness of social discourses and power relations that work to enable/constrain reproductive justice.
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Counsellors’ constructions of intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy and their interventions with women suffering such IPV:
- Fleischack, Annie, Macleod, Catriona I, Böhmke, Werner
- Authors: Fleischack, Annie , Macleod, Catriona I , Böhmke, Werner
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143716 , vital:38276 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: South African research reveals a high prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) yet little research exists regarding IPV during pregnancy. In this paper we present data collected through narrative interviews with eight counsellors from two NGOs working with women experiencing IPV during pregnancy. Using a narrative-discursive analytical lens, attention was given to the construction of subject positions and power relations between the men and women in the counsellors’ narratives. Men were largely positioned as subscribing to violent patriarchal behaviour whilst women were mostly positioned as nurturing, and as victims. The counsellors saw IPV during pregnancy as occurring for a variety of reasons, including conflicts around abortion, and male partners finding the women physically unattractive. It was noted that IPV during pregnancy is managed by women in complex ways. Counsellors’ emphasis on individual counselling and leaving the IPV relationship suggests that women are ultimately responsible for their own wellbeing and success.
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- Authors: Fleischack, Annie , Macleod, Catriona I , Böhmke, Werner
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143716 , vital:38276 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: South African research reveals a high prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) yet little research exists regarding IPV during pregnancy. In this paper we present data collected through narrative interviews with eight counsellors from two NGOs working with women experiencing IPV during pregnancy. Using a narrative-discursive analytical lens, attention was given to the construction of subject positions and power relations between the men and women in the counsellors’ narratives. Men were largely positioned as subscribing to violent patriarchal behaviour whilst women were mostly positioned as nurturing, and as victims. The counsellors saw IPV during pregnancy as occurring for a variety of reasons, including conflicts around abortion, and male partners finding the women physically unattractive. It was noted that IPV during pregnancy is managed by women in complex ways. Counsellors’ emphasis on individual counselling and leaving the IPV relationship suggests that women are ultimately responsible for their own wellbeing and success.
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Deconstructing developmental psychology twenty years on : reflections, implications and empirical work
- Callaghan, Jane, Andenæs, Agnes, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Callaghan, Jane , Andenæs, Agnes , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6315 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020934 , http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0959353515583702
- Description: Editorial
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- Authors: Callaghan, Jane , Andenæs, Agnes , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6315 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020934 , http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0959353515583702
- Description: Editorial
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Exploring the emancipatory potential of nursing practice in relation to sexuality: a systematic literature review of nursing research 2009-2014
- Nhamo-Murire, Mercy, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Nhamo-Murire, Mercy , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143650 , vital:38270 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Nurses play an important role in disseminating health information and in the provision of counselling concerning sexuality healthcare settings. There is some evidence, however, that nurses do not always consider issues relating to sexualities in their general practice, and when they do, may feel some discomfort in addressing sexuality. In this paper we report on a systematic review of research on nursing practice in relation to sexualities that appeared in nursing journals in the Web of Science database from 2009-2014. Thirty nine articles, which were published in English and reported on nursing practice in relation to sexualities, were thematically analysed. We focus on what research has been done and how this research may be used in the development of emancipatory nursing practice in relation to sexualities. Despite increasing attention being paid to social justice issues in nursing, the implications of this for nursing practice needs further exploration.
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- Authors: Nhamo-Murire, Mercy , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143650 , vital:38270 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Nurses play an important role in disseminating health information and in the provision of counselling concerning sexuality healthcare settings. There is some evidence, however, that nurses do not always consider issues relating to sexualities in their general practice, and when they do, may feel some discomfort in addressing sexuality. In this paper we report on a systematic review of research on nursing practice in relation to sexualities that appeared in nursing journals in the Web of Science database from 2009-2014. Thirty nine articles, which were published in English and reported on nursing practice in relation to sexualities, were thematically analysed. We focus on what research has been done and how this research may be used in the development of emancipatory nursing practice in relation to sexualities. Despite increasing attention being paid to social justice issues in nursing, the implications of this for nursing practice needs further exploration.
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Health Psychology and the framing of abortion in Africa: a critical review of the literature
- Macleod, Catriona I, Chiweshe, Malvern T, Mavuso, Jabulile
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Chiweshe, Malvern T , Mavuso, Jabulile
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143871 , vital:38290 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Despite 97% of abortions performed in Africa being classifiable as unsafe, there has been virtually no engagement in knowledge production about abortion in Africa from psychologists, outside of South Africa. Taking a feminist health psychology approach, we conducted a systematic review of published research on this topic featured in PsycINFO over a six year period. We analysed the 39 articles included in the review in terms of countries in which the research was conducted, types of research, issues covered, framings, and main findings. The results show that apart from a public health framing, perspectives that foreground contextual, social, cultural, gendered perspectives dominate. While abortion services, unsafe abortion and the incidence of abortion were well researched, so too were attitudes and public discourses on abortion. Clinical psychological, reproductive justice or rights and medical framings received little attention. We outline the implications of this knowledge base for feminist health psychology in Africa.
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- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Chiweshe, Malvern T , Mavuso, Jabulile
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143871 , vital:38290 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Despite 97% of abortions performed in Africa being classifiable as unsafe, there has been virtually no engagement in knowledge production about abortion in Africa from psychologists, outside of South Africa. Taking a feminist health psychology approach, we conducted a systematic review of published research on this topic featured in PsycINFO over a six year period. We analysed the 39 articles included in the review in terms of countries in which the research was conducted, types of research, issues covered, framings, and main findings. The results show that apart from a public health framing, perspectives that foreground contextual, social, cultural, gendered perspectives dominate. While abortion services, unsafe abortion and the incidence of abortion were well researched, so too were attitudes and public discourses on abortion. Clinical psychological, reproductive justice or rights and medical framings received little attention. We outline the implications of this knowledge base for feminist health psychology in Africa.
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Life orientation sexuality education in South Africa: gendered norms, justice and transformation
- Shefer, Tamara, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Shefer, Tamara , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6310 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018868
- Description: [From introduction] Research on sexual practices among young South Africans has proliferated in light of the national imperatives to challenge the spread of HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence and unwanted early pregnancies. It has been widely acknowledged that, in order to respond to these social problems, we need to understand the enmeshment of gender, class, age and other forms of social inequality, and how these are played out in ‘normal’ heterosexual relationships. Life Orientation (LO) sexuality education programmes have been viewed as key locations for incorporating education to challenge negative assumptions in respect of HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence and unwanted pregnancy and to promote safer, equitable and non-violent sexual practices. There is a paucity of work that interrogates the LO sexuality education programme in terms of gender norms, gender justice and gender transformation. In the handful of studies conducted on school-based sexuality education in South Africa, researchers have foregrounded a number of challenges, including the dominance of a guiding metaphor of danger and disease in the sexuality education component of LO manuals (Macleod, 2009); educators using a transmission mode of teaching to the exclusion of participation and experiential modes of learning (Rooth, 2005); educators understanding sexuality education as chiefly addressing the provision of information concerning, and prevention of, HIV/AIDS (Francis, 2011); teachers’ preference for abstinence-only education taught by means of a series of moral injunctions (Francis, 2011); and the avoidance of discussions of sexual diversity, and the endorsement of compulsory heterosexuality when same-sex relationships are mentioned (Francis, 2012). Recent research has also highlighted the variation in how teachers approach sexuality education. Francis and DePalma (2014) indicate that, while teachers may promote abstinence as the only appropriate choice for young people, they also recognise the value of teaching relationships and safe sex (aspects associated with comprehensive sexuality education). In their study, Helleve et al. (2009) report that Grades 8 and 9 LO teachers felt confident in teaching HIV and sexuality. This special issue of Perspectives in Education builds on this research by drawing together several papers that examine how LO or Life Skills sexuality programmes challenge and/or reproduce normative constructions of gender and gendered power relations. All the papers use qualitative research to locate these programmes within the complex contexts of their enactment, drawing attention to the multiple possibilities and limitations of such programmes. In the next section, we summarise the key problematics addressed in each of the papers. What curiosities drove the studies conducted by these researchers interested in gender dynamics in schools and LO or Life Skills sexuality education? Why are these curiosities important? We then highlight the key findings that emerged from these curiosities and the nuanced data collected. Finally, and most importantly in terms of the aims of this special issue, we address the ways in which a critical gender lens that facilitates gender transformation and gender justice could possibly be incorporated into LO or Life Skills sexuality programmes.
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- Authors: Shefer, Tamara , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6310 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018868
- Description: [From introduction] Research on sexual practices among young South Africans has proliferated in light of the national imperatives to challenge the spread of HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence and unwanted early pregnancies. It has been widely acknowledged that, in order to respond to these social problems, we need to understand the enmeshment of gender, class, age and other forms of social inequality, and how these are played out in ‘normal’ heterosexual relationships. Life Orientation (LO) sexuality education programmes have been viewed as key locations for incorporating education to challenge negative assumptions in respect of HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence and unwanted pregnancy and to promote safer, equitable and non-violent sexual practices. There is a paucity of work that interrogates the LO sexuality education programme in terms of gender norms, gender justice and gender transformation. In the handful of studies conducted on school-based sexuality education in South Africa, researchers have foregrounded a number of challenges, including the dominance of a guiding metaphor of danger and disease in the sexuality education component of LO manuals (Macleod, 2009); educators using a transmission mode of teaching to the exclusion of participation and experiential modes of learning (Rooth, 2005); educators understanding sexuality education as chiefly addressing the provision of information concerning, and prevention of, HIV/AIDS (Francis, 2011); teachers’ preference for abstinence-only education taught by means of a series of moral injunctions (Francis, 2011); and the avoidance of discussions of sexual diversity, and the endorsement of compulsory heterosexuality when same-sex relationships are mentioned (Francis, 2012). Recent research has also highlighted the variation in how teachers approach sexuality education. Francis and DePalma (2014) indicate that, while teachers may promote abstinence as the only appropriate choice for young people, they also recognise the value of teaching relationships and safe sex (aspects associated with comprehensive sexuality education). In their study, Helleve et al. (2009) report that Grades 8 and 9 LO teachers felt confident in teaching HIV and sexuality. This special issue of Perspectives in Education builds on this research by drawing together several papers that examine how LO or Life Skills sexuality programmes challenge and/or reproduce normative constructions of gender and gendered power relations. All the papers use qualitative research to locate these programmes within the complex contexts of their enactment, drawing attention to the multiple possibilities and limitations of such programmes. In the next section, we summarise the key problematics addressed in each of the papers. What curiosities drove the studies conducted by these researchers interested in gender dynamics in schools and LO or Life Skills sexuality education? Why are these curiosities important? We then highlight the key findings that emerged from these curiosities and the nuanced data collected. Finally, and most importantly in terms of the aims of this special issue, we address the ways in which a critical gender lens that facilitates gender transformation and gender justice could possibly be incorporated into LO or Life Skills sexuality programmes.
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Men's pathways to parenthood: Silences and heterosexual gender norms
- Morison, Tracy, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Book
- Identifier: vital:548 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018815 , http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?productid=2332
- Description: How does the decision to become a parent unfold for heterosexual men? Is becoming a father a 'decision' at all or a series of events? These questions are the starting point for this critical book, in which the authors unravel the social and interpersonal processes – shaped by deeply entrenched socio-cultural norms – that come to bear on parenthood decision-making in the South African context. Drawing on the narratives of white, Afrikaans women and men, Men's Pathways to Parenthood uses an innovative discursive method to illuminate the roles masculinity, whiteness, class, and heteronormativity play in these accounts. Men's Pathways to Parenthood addresses an under-researched topic in gender studies – namely, men and reproductive decision-making – and will be an important resource for scholars in gender studies, sexualities, and reproductive health, as well as those interested in innovative approaches to discursive research.
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- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Book
- Identifier: vital:548 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018815 , http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?productid=2332
- Description: How does the decision to become a parent unfold for heterosexual men? Is becoming a father a 'decision' at all or a series of events? These questions are the starting point for this critical book, in which the authors unravel the social and interpersonal processes – shaped by deeply entrenched socio-cultural norms – that come to bear on parenthood decision-making in the South African context. Drawing on the narratives of white, Afrikaans women and men, Men's Pathways to Parenthood uses an innovative discursive method to illuminate the roles masculinity, whiteness, class, and heteronormativity play in these accounts. Men's Pathways to Parenthood addresses an under-researched topic in gender studies – namely, men and reproductive decision-making – and will be an important resource for scholars in gender studies, sexualities, and reproductive health, as well as those interested in innovative approaches to discursive research.
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Pecha Kucha 1: Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143915 , vital:38294 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Despite enabling legislation and policies in the areas of sexualities and reproduction in South Africa, multiple challenges persist, including: forced sexual debut, sexual coercion and violence; HIV infection; hate crimes against lesbian women and gay men; unwanted and unsupportable pregnancies. While it is acknowledged that interventions (e.g., sexuality education programmes, the promotion of antenatal care use and the promotion of non-discrimination) have the potential to improve men’s and women’s sexual and reproductive lives. There are also multiple ways in which such programmes and the surrounding public discourses concerning sexuality and reproduction can serve in often unintended and unwitting ways to perpetuate oppressive heteronormative, gendered, racialised and class-based power relations. The Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction research programme focuses on how particular discourses, narratives, and practices promote inclusion or exclusion, belonging or marginalisation, equity or inequity, justice or injustice, access to, or denial of, sexual and reproductive rights.
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- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143915 , vital:38294 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Despite enabling legislation and policies in the areas of sexualities and reproduction in South Africa, multiple challenges persist, including: forced sexual debut, sexual coercion and violence; HIV infection; hate crimes against lesbian women and gay men; unwanted and unsupportable pregnancies. While it is acknowledged that interventions (e.g., sexuality education programmes, the promotion of antenatal care use and the promotion of non-discrimination) have the potential to improve men’s and women’s sexual and reproductive lives. There are also multiple ways in which such programmes and the surrounding public discourses concerning sexuality and reproduction can serve in often unintended and unwitting ways to perpetuate oppressive heteronormative, gendered, racialised and class-based power relations. The Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction research programme focuses on how particular discourses, narratives, and practices promote inclusion or exclusion, belonging or marginalisation, equity or inequity, justice or injustice, access to, or denial of, sexual and reproductive rights.
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Precocious little monsters and the birth of puberty science: tracing early puberty as a health matter
- Pinto, Pedro, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Pinto, Pedro , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143626 , vital:38268 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Over the last two decades, early puberty has been increasingly portrayed in scientific and popular arenas as an alarming health issue. Changes in pubertal timing are frequently accorded a range of medical and moral dangers, suggesting individual degeneracy and social crisis. In our presentation – the first output of a Foucauldian genealogical investigation on pubertal knowledge in medical journals – we show that today’s problematisations of early puberty are rooted in the figure of the child monster, as produced in early nineteenth century medical discourse. Drawing on doctors’ clinical encounters with the pubescent body as represented in medical journals during that period, we argue that puberty, understood as a scientific construct, has been ‘praecox’ since the beginning. From this genealogical viewpoint, we explore the ways in which our present ‘pubertal complex’ talks to an old medical dilemma: the confusion of maturity and immaturity within the young body.
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- Authors: Pinto, Pedro , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143626 , vital:38268 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Over the last two decades, early puberty has been increasingly portrayed in scientific and popular arenas as an alarming health issue. Changes in pubertal timing are frequently accorded a range of medical and moral dangers, suggesting individual degeneracy and social crisis. In our presentation – the first output of a Foucauldian genealogical investigation on pubertal knowledge in medical journals – we show that today’s problematisations of early puberty are rooted in the figure of the child monster, as produced in early nineteenth century medical discourse. Drawing on doctors’ clinical encounters with the pubescent body as represented in medical journals during that period, we argue that puberty, understood as a scientific construct, has been ‘praecox’ since the beginning. From this genealogical viewpoint, we explore the ways in which our present ‘pubertal complex’ talks to an old medical dilemma: the confusion of maturity and immaturity within the young body.
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