Weighing the Future

Race, Science, and Pregnancy Trials in the Postgenomic Era

Natali Valdez (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

284 Seiten

2021
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-38013-4 (ISBN)

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Epigenetics, the study of heritable changes in gene expression, has been heralded as one of the most promising new fields of scientific inquiry. Current large-scale studies selectively draw on epigenetics to connect behavioral choices made by pregnant people, such as diet and exercise, to health risks for future generations. As the first ethnography of its kind, Weighing the Future examines the sociopolitical implications of ongoing pregnancy trials in the United States and the United Kingdom, illuminating how processes of scientific knowledge production are linked to capitalism, surveillance, and environmental reproduction. Natali Valdez argues that a focus on individual behavior rather than social environments ignores the vital impacts of systemic racism. The environments we imagine to shape our genes, bodies, and future health are intimately tied to race, gender, and structures of inequality. This groundbreaking book makes the case that science, and how we translate it, is a reproductive project that requires feminist vigilance. Instead of fixating on a future at risk, this book brings attention to the present at stake.

Natali Valdez is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Fordham University. Her research focuses on issues of racism, power, and equity in healthcare.

Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Weighing the Future

Part I
1. Epistemic Environments: Reproducing Solutions
to Past, Present, and Future Maternal Health

2. Un/Altered: The Durability of Individualized
Interventions for Multidimensional Illness

Part II
3. Politics of Recruitment: How Fatness, Race,
and Risk Shape Contemporary Pregnancy Trials

4. Pregnant Narratives: Experiencing Lifestyle
Interventions

Part III
5. Environmental Animations: What Counts
as the Maternal Environment?

6. Prospecting Pregnancies: Data, Time,
and Speculative Value

Conclusion: The Afterbirth of Foreclosure
Epilogue: [The Future] Is Composed of Nows

Notes
References
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	08.03.2022
Reihe/Serie	Critical Environments: Nature, Science, and Politics ; 9
Zusatzinfo	4 b-w illustrations, 2 tables
Verlagsort	Berkerley
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	499 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Archäologie
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Genetik / Molekularbiologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
ISBN-10	0-520-38013-4 / 0520380134
ISBN-13	978-0-520-38013-4 / 9780520380134
Zustand	Neuware