Postgraduate Course: Governing Reproduction (SCPL11031)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
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, childrens 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 construct deserving families, and how these political framings justify reforms; how pro- or anti-natalist family policies are almost always selective in their design; how immigration policy shapes possibilities for social and biological reproduction among migrant parents; the ways in which childrens social care enact family surveillance; and how early and late childbearing are constructed as public health problems. The course will focus on social policies in Global North countries (e.g.: UK, Hungary, US, Finland, China, France), 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 wide-ranging policies reflect the political understanding of population problems and be alert to how these policies unequally shape different population groups possibilities for family-making.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate extensive, detailed and critical understanding of the ways in which social policies unequally empower different social groups to nurture and reproduce
- Use specialised critical social theories to examine how abstract population and reproduction problems are framed
- Identify, conceptualise and define original and creative policy indicators to measure how states govern reproduction
- Demonstrate critical evaluation of a wide range of numerical and graphical data
- Demonstrate leadership and/or initiative and make an identifiable contribution to a significant team research project
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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. 2136). 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. Womens Studies International Forum, 19(2), 1724.
Morgan, L. M. (2019). Reproductive Governance, Redux. Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness, 38(2), 113117.
Yopo Díaz, M., & Watkins, L. (2025). Beyond the body: Social, structural, and environmental infertility. In Social Science and Medicine (Vol. 365). |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Group work within the course develops the ability to demonstrate leadership in team environments, as well as interactive and interpersonal communication skills
The individual indicator report and personal reflection essay develop a range of analytical skills, such as problem solving, critical thinking, and self-reflection
The indicator report also develops digital and data literacy skills
Assessments across the course develop a range of verbal and written communication skills, as well as visual communication |
| 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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