Body/Politics - Studies in Reproduction, Production, and (Re)Construction

Negotiating the terrain between techno-optimism and eco-pessimism, this work establishes the political connections between technologies of the body, property, and the environment. Specific technologies of the body, such as surrogacy and in vitro fertilization, are examined in relation to their political and legal constructions. Next, Shevory analyzes private property as an evolving historical concept that implicates environmental and biological transformations with particular attention given to biotechnology cases. He then considers the body's appearance and its alterations through plastic surgery, dieting, or piercing as political constructions.

A theoretical overview specifies technoprogressivist (liberal) and technophobic traditions, especially as they have evolved in the United States during the second half of the 20th-century. Drawing upon critical and feminist theories, Shevory specifies a body politics that negotiates the terrain between these two traditions. Body technologies and markets, he argues, interact to consolidate and reinforce dominant systems of power, while at the same time resisting and sometimes subverting them. Technology is often a factor in the fragmentation of evolving political ideological discourses on the left and right; however, the resulting instabilities create the potential for both the expansion of global capital and its subversion via democratic interventions.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
Technoprogs, Technoprobes, and Critical Body Politics
(Re)constructing Public and Private Life through Surrogacy Contracts
Through a Glass Darkly: Law, Politics, and Frozen Embryos
Property, Law, Environment
Property, Law, Biotechnics
(Re)constructions of Appearance and the Politics of Bodies
The Futures of Technology Politics

Über den Autor / die Autorin

THOMAS C. SHEVORY is Associate Professor of Politics at Ithaca College./e He teaches courses in law, public policy, and the politics of popular culture. He has published on legal history, biotechnology, reproductive rights, and the politics of popular music.

Produktdetails

• Autoren: Thomas C. Shevory, Shevory Thomas
• Verlag: Bloomsbury
• Sprache: Englisch
• Produktform: Fester Einband
• Erschienen: 28.02.2000
• EAN: 9780275967406
• ISBN: 978-0-275-96740-6
• Themen: Naturwissenschaften, Medizin, Informatik, Technik > Medizin > Klinische Fächer; PHILOSOPHY / Social, PHILOSOPHY / Political, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, SCIENCE / Philosophy & Social Aspects, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Social Aspects, Social & political philosophy, Political science & theory, social and political philosophy, Impact of science & technology on society, Political science and theory, Impact of science and technology on society, Central / national / federal government policies, Central government policies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Technology Studies, Women's Studies: Politics and Law