Undergraduate Course: Reproduction, Policy and Politics (SCPL10049)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This research-led course introduces students to how social policies unequally distribute the resources that people need to have children and look after them, construct who counts as a 'good' parent, and sometimes even shape reproductive outcomes. Through the lens of critical social theories focused on reproduction, we will examine a wide range of policy areas such as: austerity and welfare reform, migration policy, labour markets, family policy, children's social care, international development and public health. |
| Course description |
Through the lens of interdisciplinary, critical social theories on reproduction, the course will examine issues such as: how social policies define some families as 'deserving' of public assistance and others as 'underserving'; how pro- or anti-natalist family policies target specific kinds of families; how migration policies shape possibilities for care and reproduction among migrant parents; how child protection systems disproportionately police racially minoritized and working-class families; and how 'early' and 'late' childbearing are constructed as public health problems. The course will focus on social policies in the Global North but will also examine how international development policies around family planning affect families in the Global South.
The course will explore these themes by critically analysing a different social policy area every week, using key theoretical texts and empirical analyses to illuminate hidden policy logics and potential outcomes. By the end of the course, students will have the analytical tools required to understand how the design of social policies reflects the political understanding of population 'problems', and be alert to how these policies unequally shape different social groups' possibilities for family-making.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least three social policy/sociology courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). Only university/college level courses will be considered. |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical and interdisciplinary understanding of the ways in which social policies unequally empower different social groups to nurture and reproduce
- Use critical social theories to examine how population and reproduction problems are framed in social policies
- Demonstrate initiative to autonomously craft appropriate, critical and creative policy indicators
- Make constructive use of analytical skills to comparatively score countries or local regions on policy indicators, using sources of data about social welfare in Europe
- Work effectively as part of a team to craft a coherent and analytically persuasive policy scorecard
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Reading List
Briggs, L. (2017). How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics: From Welfare Reform to Foreclosure to Trump. University of California Press.
Fraser, N. (2017). Crisis of Care? On the Social-Reproductive Contradictions of Contemporary Capitalism. In T. Bhattacharya (Ed.), Social Reproduction Theory: Remapping Class, Recentering Oppression (pp. 21-36). Pluto Press.
Ross, L., & Solinger, R. (2017). Reproductive Justice: An Introduction. University California Press.
Yuval-Davis, N. (1996). Women and the biological reproduction of 'the nation.' Women's Studies International Forum, 19(2), 17-24.
Morgan, L. M. (2019). Reproductive Governance, Redux. Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness, 38(2), 113-117.
Yopo Díaz, M., & Watkins, L. (2025). Beyond the body: Social, structural, and environmental infertility. Social Science and Medicine (Vol. 365), 1-10. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Critical thinking
Problem solving
Reflection
Communication
Data and digital literacy
Collaboration |
| Keywords | reproduction,population,social policy,reproductive justice,family,care |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Laura Sochas
Tel:
Email: lsochas@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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