Overpopulation discourse: A feminist and necropolitical approach from the Global South (original) (raw)
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American Journal of Sociology, 2021
The prevailing assumption that limiting fertility in the Global South will prevent planetary collapse has inspired a new generation of environmental activists. But these young leaders, Jade E. Sasser argues, are merely one node in a network of actors rekindling overpopulation anxieties to revive a shrinking international development sector. On Infertile Ground: Population Control and Women's Rights in the Era of Climate Change contributes a much-needed analysis on the enduring legacy of neo-Malthusianism in environmental advocacy. Drawing from archival material and ethnographic interviews, Sasser reveals that neo-Malthusianism didn't end in the postwar period. Rather, scientists, private donors, and NGOs reimagined neo-Malthusian discourse in the 21st century on the promise of women's empowerment in the Global South-vis-àvis her womb-to slow overpopulation and reverse rising temperatures and habitat destruction.
Media reports on the wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world for the most part ignore a crucial underlying factor: rapid, unsustainable population growth. Seventeen years ago, Egypt, one of the countries at the center of the current unrest, hosted the International Conference on Population and Development. Under the influence of feminist and social justice non-governmental organisations, population reduction as an end in itself was off the agenda as antithetical to women’s rights. A focus on development alone was expected to bring about a reduction in population growth. In the absence of national or international (United Nations) population strategies, financial support for family planning has fallen sharply and population growth has remained rapid. Consequently, development has lagged, and a deteriorating environment and resource scarcity have led to conflict in many regions. This article challenges the arguments used to suppress discussion of and action on population growth and invites readers to break the silence of policy makers and scholars to discuss the role of population growth in a myriad of problems, what we can call the population taboo.
Confronting populationism: Feminist challenges to population control in an era of climate change
Gender, Place & Culture A Journal of Feminist Geography , 2019
In this themed section, we identify three forms of populationism and bring them into conversation, which allows us to mount feminist challenges to present day forms of population control. These interventions are timely and necessary because of the continued prevalence of population control ideology and population alarmism in sustainable development and climate change policy and programs. We issue a direct challenge to scholarship that links population reduction with climate change adaptation and mitigation and the survival of the planet. The introduction provides an overview of our key argument, that seemingly disparate phenomena—technocratic approaches to fertility control, climate change securitization, Zika assemblages, neo-Malthusian articulations of the Anthropocene, and ‘climate-smart’ agriculture—are entangled with and expressions of demo, geo and biopopulationisms. We employ feminist critiques to contest these manifestations of population control that restrict bodies, reinforce boundaries, and create spaces of exclusion and violence.
Overpopulation Discourse: Patriarchy, Racism, and the Specter of Ecofascism
Perspectives on Global Development and Technology , 2019
As our current climate crises increase in severity, discussions on solutions have found themselves at the forefront of mainstream media, and talked about by political actors and economic elites. While many of these solutions may seem ethical or even the an- swer to our ecological problem, we must take a critical look at the root causes in order to understand what actions are necessary. Without this, our discussions fall short, and tend to negatively affect marginalized communities. Family-planning programs aimed at the suppression of certain populations is one example used when discussing how to combat overpopulation in order to alleviate climate change. This superficial, West- ern, capitalist-driven idea and discussion, laced with sexist and racist undertones, is the discourse we will be analyzing. By employing a critical decolonial and ecofemi- nist lens, we will critique this discourse, and argue that it’s an all-too-common tool of deflection and scapegoating that white environmentalism employs in order to ignore historic power relations. Further, we will illuminate historical roots and trends around the family-planning movement, such as anti-immigrant sentiment, nationalism, and ecofascism.
A Renewed Call for Feminist Resistance to Population Control
DifferenTakes, 2019
Editor's note: This year marks the 25 th anniversary of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. ICPD is recognized by many as catalyzing a shift toward sexual and reproductive health and rights and women's empowerment and away from population control in family planning. However, as the DifferenTakes series has chronicled, many government policies, donor funding strategies , environmental group campaigns, and international family planning approaches have continued to rely on population control tactics in the years since ICPD. 1 These include the use of incentives, coercion and targets as well as an overreliance on long-acting reversible contraception and sterilization. In some countries, people living with HIV, people with disabilities, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, as well as transgender and intersex people, continue to be forcibly and coercively sterilized. 2 In recognition of these harmful continuances, PopDev is pleased to publish this statement, which was collaboratively written in the spirit of feminist challenges to population control around the 1994 ICPD. 3 At the time of this publication, over 200 individuals and organizations from 26 countries have endorsed it. The statement recognizes and challenges population control in the time of climate change and promotes a social justice approach to addressing environmental racism, nationalism and hate, and to promoting reproductive health. Readers seeking to learn more can access "Confronting Populationism." 4-Anne Hendrixson NO. 94 FALL 2019 DifferenTakes is a publication of the Population and Development Program Hampshire College | Amherst, Massachusetts 413.559.5506 http://popdev.hampshire.edu Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the individual authors unless otherwise specified.
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies
This article considers how the metaphor of Mother Earth, for women, concerns a dual stance of both belonging and distance. The link between women, nature and Mother Earth is problematised by considering the possible, or contested, link between population growth and climate change, and the South African population policy specifically is considered as an example. Ecofeminism’s challenge to the perceived connection between women, motherhood and Earth, that is the ‘distance’ stance, is considered and a response to that is offered by reflecting on Mercy Oduyoye’s notion of mothering, which represents the ‘belonging’ stance. In this regard, an intercultural approach to the definition of motherhood is implied. It is ultimately indicated that for women to reclaim their own agency regarding a perceived responsibility towards nature, it is necessary to deconstruct and reconstruct ‘motherhood’ to free themselves from being stuck between Mother Earth and a mother’s womb.Contribution: This artic...
A feminist exploration of 'populationism': engaging contemporary forms of population control
Gender, Place & Culture A Journal of Feminist Geography, 2019
Following the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 in Cairo, which prompted a discursive shift from population control to reproductive health and rights in international development, policy experts and scholars have relegated population control to the realm of history. This presents a unique challenge to feminist critics who seek to identify manifestations of population control in the present. In this article, we consider the potential of ‘populationism’ as terminology that may assist in clarifying varied new manifestations of population control. We explicate three interrelated populationist strategies that focus on optimizing numbers (demo), spaces (geo), and life itself (bio). Through our elaboration of these three populationisms and their interaction, we seek to inspire feminist, intersectional responses to the pernicious social, economic and environmental problems that technocratic populationist interventions obscure.
In this paper, a postcolonial feminist social work perspective is presented as key to analyzing the intersections between population growth and sustainability within the context of globalization. This new theoretical perspective offers attention to the historical complexity of gendered and racialized power relations within and between systems, honors the agency of all women and reflects core values of social work, social justice and self-determination. The application of this perspective to the intersections between population growth and sustainability can lead to a re-envisioning international and national policies to promote both reproductive justice and sustainability. World population growth is identified in popular discourse as a key barrier to environmental sustainability (Campbell, 2007), causing or exacerbating a multitude of problems, including “climate change and global warming, fragile and failed states, migration and refugee crises, food and water insecurity, poverty, disease, debt, and illiteracy”(Redding, 2007, p. 1). The link made between women’s fertility and ecological and social disaster is not new, and has sometimes led to policies that impede women’s reproductive rights and jeopardize their health (Hartmann & Hendrixon, 2005). A postcolonial feminist social work perspective draws attention to the context of global inequality, produced historically by colonialism and currently by the economic dimensions of globalization. It is the economic dimensions of globalization that threaten environmental sustainability and reproductive justice. A postcolonial feminist social work perspective reframes the discussion of population growth and sustainability, based on the core values of social justice and self-determination, and can promote optimum outcomes in terms of environmental sustainability and reproductive justice.
World
While high fertility levels in sub-Saharan Africa pose multiple challenges for economic, social, and environmental prospects, the perspectives of actors from this region have not been well documented. We offer a selection of viewpoints from 42 countries in sub-Saharan Africa along four main dimensions: perceptions of the role of population growth for broader societal implications; the representation of sub-Saharan Africa in discussions of population growth; the integration of population dynamics and reproductive health and rights in environmental considerations and instruments; and the sensitive nature of the topic of population growth. A mixed-methods qualitative project was conducted, using an online survey of 402 participants followed by 18 in-depth interviews, to collect the views of policy makers, researchers, and activists in sub-Saharan Africa. We find overwhelming agreement that population growth has negative implications for environmental sustainability and other social wel...