Confronting populationism: Feminist challenges to population control in an era of climate change (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.
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.
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.
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.
Overpopulation discourse: A feminist and necropolitical approach from the Global South
Overpopulation discourse: A feminist and necropolitical approach from the Global South, 2024
This work examines the flawed narrative linking ecological crises to overpopulation, with a focus on its impact on women in the Global South. The paper argues that this perspective enables control over women's bodies under the pretence of environmental concern, aligning with necropolitics and a new form of eugenics. It calls for a nuanced understanding of the effects of environmental crisis on women, advocating for a human‐centred approach that elevates the experiences and rights of historically marginalized groups. The discussion includes a critical analysis of the Malthusian discourse, highlighting alternative views on food scarcity and the problematic nature of family planning initiatives. The paper promotes reproductive environmental justice, challenging the overpopulation narrative and underscoring the need for equitable and respectful solutions that support the rights and well‐being of women in the Global South.
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.
Subjectivity
In this article, we engage feminist theorisations of figurations as “performative images that can be inhabited” (Haraway 1997/2018) to trace some of the figures which are animating stories about climate change and reproduction in Global North contexts. We focus our reading on a handful of texts which circulate around the question of ‘Is it okay to have a child, given our climate conditions and futures?’ Throughout, we consider the relationship between figurations and our subjective becomings in response to environmental devastations. We critique and resist the hegemonic figuring of ‘the human subject’ as rational and unitary (Braidotti 2014), as this figure naturalises the Western social power relations of advanced capitalism, population control and human exceptionalism. Seeking multiplicity, we look for figures and subjective openings which enable us to become response-able to the pain of ecological worlds dying around us (Haraway 2016), including from our disciplinary location of ...
Challenging Pronatalism Is Key to Advancing Reproductive Rights and a Sustainable Population
The Journal of Population and Sustainability
Social and environmental justice organisations have silenced discourse on human overpopulation due to fear of any association with reproductive coercion, but in doing so they have failed to acknowledge the oppressive role of pronatalism in undermining reproductive autonomy. Pronatalism, which comprises cultural and institutional forces that compel reproduction, is far more widespread, and as damaging to individual liberties as attempts to limit reproduction. The failure to recognise the enormity of pronatalism has led to the wholesale abandonment of voluntary, rights-based efforts toward a sustainable population despite widespread scientific agreement that population growth is a major driver of multiple cascading environmental crises. We examine the full range of patriarchal, cultural, familial, religious, economic and political pronatalist pressures, and argue that the reluctance to address population as a driver of the ecological crisis serves the very pronatalist forces that unde...
2020
This thesis departs from scientific literature which suggests to "have one fewer child" as the most effective individual lifestyle choice to reduce one's contribution to (and even actively fight against) climate change. By employing critical discourse analysis of this literature, I explore how childbearing and carbon emissions have been coupled, and what the implications of this phenomenon are. Throughout this work I seek to show that quantifying an unborn child in emissions savings and suggesting to restrain from them must be understood in the socio-political and historical context which drives the individualization of climate causes and solutions; gives authority to "value-neutral" science to produce and naturalize reproductive recommendations; and ignores the patriarchal history of reproduction within capitalism. I essentially argue that "have one fewer child" conceals the gendered nature of reproduction in capitalism, accelerates the instrumental treatment of both childbearing and the climate crisis, and implies that female bodies and sexual life should serve a greater purpose and thus remain manageable. I also suggest that the latter is likely to get a grip in the (m)Anthropocenea human-dominated era in which human has become the biggest threat.