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(Un)Desired Families: Stratified Reproduction and Racial Capitalism in Contemporary Sweden and India
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Centre for Gender Research. Mångkulturellt Ctr MKC, Stockholm, Sweden..
Mångkulturellt Ctr MKC, Stockholm, Sweden..
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Government.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1962-410x
2026 (English)In: NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, ISSN 0803-8740, E-ISSN 1502-394X, Vol. 34, no 2, p. 227-245Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The assisted reproductive technology (ART) industry, along with national biopolitical agendas, have contributed to a reconfiguring of the historical entanglements of race and reproduction. In this article, we interrogate this phenomenon by exploring the practice of gestational surrogacy through the lens of racial capitalism. Focusing on surrogates in India and intended parents in Sweden - parties that represent opposite nodes in the "global fertility chain" - we aim to contribute to the understanding of racial capitalism as it articulates in the present, by including biological (in addition to social) reproduction. Our analysis builds on previous research on India and Sweden, including our own ethnographic work on Indian surrogacy. We depart from observations of how policies and discourses of mobility and national belonging reflect hierarchical relations to socially valued reproduction, linked to gender, race, caste, class and migration status. While the reproduction of some families is privileged through cross border mobility for access to ARTs and transnational adoption, and in-migration of reproductive workers, reproduction among other families is denounced in public discourse. Women who are discouraged from reproducing are at the same time made "bio-available" through processes of dispossession, and engaged as bio- and reproductive labourers upholding the reproductive needs of more privileged groups.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2026. Vol. 34, no 2, p. 227-245
Keywords [en]
Racial capitalism, assisted reproductive technologies, surrogacy, India, Sweden
National Category
Gender Studies Sociology (Excluding Social Work, Social Anthropology, Demography and Criminology) Ethnology International Migration and Ethnic Relations Social Anthropology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-587032DOI: 10.1080/08038740.2025.2608826ISI: 001716911400001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105033055093OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-587032DiVA, id: diva2:2070962
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Swedish Research CouncilAvailable from: 2026-06-12 Created: 2026-06-12 Last updated: 2026-06-12Bibliographically approved

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Gondouin, JohannaThapar-Björkert, Suruchi

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NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research
Gender StudiesSociology (Excluding Social Work, Social Anthropology, Demography and Criminology)EthnologyInternational Migration and Ethnic RelationsSocial Anthropology

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