Understanding Reproductive Technologies as a Surveillant Assemblage: Revisions of Power and Technoscience

Critical scholars have indicated the potential of reproductive technologies to perpetuate race, class, and gender inequalities. This article aims to enhance this literature by applying Haggerty and Ericson's concept of the surveillant assemblage. This model enriches previous work by focusing on...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociological perspectives 2004-12, Vol.47 (4), p.357-370
Main Author: Lowry, Deborah Wilson
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomedical technology
Computer surveillance
Fetus
Information technology
Race
Reproductive Technologies
Reproductive technology
Sexual Inequality
Social Inequality
Sociology
Surveillance
Surveillance equipment
Technology
Telecommunications networks
Womens health
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Summary:Critical scholars have indicated the potential of reproductive technologies to perpetuate race, class, and gender inequalities. This article aims to enhance this literature by applying Haggerty and Ericson's concept of the surveillant assemblage. This model enriches previous work by focusing on reproductive technologies as fluid networks of surveillance that promote abstraction, fetishism, transformation of bodies into commodified information, and perceptions of reduced risk. Understanding reproductive technologies in this way demonstrates the extent to which they are translations of these particular values and power relations and at the same time acknowledges a multiplicity of interests. I argue that opportunities for reshaping the current politics of reproduction do not lie in the eradication of individual reproductive technologies but in attention to their assemblage(s), their propensity to abstract and objectify via surveillance, and their efforts to promote technological translations of other interests.
ISSN:0731-1214
1533-8673
DOI:10.1525/sop.2004.47.4.357