Maternities in ?out-of-the-way? places: epistemological possibilities for retheorising population geography
✍ Scribed by Underhill-Sem, Yvonne
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2001
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 138 KB
- Volume
- 7
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1077-3495
- DOI
- 10.1002/ijpg.241
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
This paper argues that theories of embodiment have particular epistemological importance in the way population geography analyses fertility. This is because such theories remind us that knowledge is produced by sexually embodied subjects in particular places and times. The paper discusses the epistemological importance of interrogating the unproblematic view of embodiment, and of motherhood as a natural given in population geography. It reviews how the body as a natural given has been interrogated within geography as a discipline, then focuses on the specific contributions of two critical feminist social theorists. This radically expands the otherwise narrow view that fertility patterns in different places and times are currently known. Although in its early stages of articulation, rethinking fertility in this way dovetails with recent work in other subdisciplines in geography such as the debates over the question of nature. In this way population geographers can make critical contributions to wider debates in geography and the social sciences in general. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.