Anika König
Biographic Data
| ID | 102250 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Anika König |
| GIVEN NAMES | Anika |
| FAMILY NAME | König |
| SIGNATURE | KÖNIG A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Freie Universität Berlin |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2884-1421 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 34 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Anticipating the future: Reproductive decision-making among people with cystic fibrosis in Germany
In this article, we explore reproductive decision-making among adults with a rare genetic chronic disease: Cystic Fibrosis (CF). CF is hereditary and can be tested for at various moments in prospective parent's reproductive trajectory, namely before, during or after pregnancy. Based on 15 interviews with persons with CF in Germany who at the time of the interviews were considering having a child, were pregnant, already had a child, or had decided…
Activism Was a Survival Strategy: Chronic Illness and the Power of Endometriosis Activism as Work
This article is part of the special issue "Laboring from Ex-Centric Sites: Disability, Chronicity and Work", Anthropology of Work Review 46(1), July 2025, edited by Giorgio Brocco and Stefanie Mauksch. In this article, we take the example of endometriosis activism to explore the interrelationship between chronic illness, activism, and work. Endometriosis is a life-limiting condition affecting at least one in ten girls and women, and unmeasured nu…
Transnational reproductive brokers in crisis
I am happy to be alive, but I prefer to have children without my chronic disease”: Chronically ill persons’ views on reproduction and genetic testing for their own condition
In Germany, the debate on preimplantation and prenatal testing is heavily influenced by the idea of an antagonism between prospective parents and their potential children. Underlying this antagonism is the assumption that prospective parents follow an ableist logic and do not regard the lives of children with a chronic illness as “worth living”. Taking the example of two rare genetic illnesses, Marfan Syndrome and Cystic Fibrosis, we investigate …
Im/mobility in the transnational surrogacy market: Disruptions and vulnerabilities in and beyond pandemic times
Based on in-depth interviews and non-participant observation collected with various actors in four surrogacy markets (India, the U.S. Germany, and Ukraine), in this paper we examine the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic on the infrastructure of the global surrogacy industry. Our findings detail the fallout of the immobilized assisted reproductive technology (ART) industry and point to the ways various stakeholders have worked to maintain its…
Reproductive Entanglements in Times of War: Transnational Gestational Surrogacy in Ukraine and Beyond
Until early 2022, within the global fertility industry, Ukraine was one of the most important destinations for reproductive travel worldwide, particularly specializing in gestational surrogacy for international intended parents. Already weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions, the surrogacy market, and here especially surrogates and intended parents, was strongly affected by the Russian invasion in February 2022. In this articl…
Shifting surrogacies: Comparative ethnographies
Gestational surrogacy is a reproductive arrangement where a woman gestates a child for others—the “intended parents”—in order to be handed over to them after birth. Since the turn of the millennium, demands for surrogacy have continuously increased due to social and demographic changes, rising rates of infertility, and the normalization of new, non-heteronormative, family forms. Many countries prohibit surrogacy, and others that previously permit…
Paperwork: Following the trail of (identity) papers in transnational commercial surrogacy
Transnational surrogacy—the carrying of a child by a woman in one country on behalf of persons in another—is strongly shaped by documents. Of these, identity documents are particularly crucial as they establish the belonging of a child born through such an arrangement both to its parents (birth certificate) and to a country (passport). However, the acquisition of these documents is subject to national laws that may contradict one another in trans…
Reprowebs: A conceptual approach to elasticity and change in the global assisted reproduction industry
In the last few decades, assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) have become increasingly transregional and transnational, often involving travel within or between countries or even continents. Until recently, the global ART industry was marked by so-called ‘reprohubs’—places (such as southern California, Dubai, Anand, and Mumbai) specializing in the provision of reproductive services. While reprohubs continue to exist, in the last few years, m…
Digitale Ethnographie
Reproductive health in the time of Sars‐CoV‐2
Decision-making about non-invasive prenatal testing: Women’s moral reasoning in the absence of a risk of miscarriage in Germany
This paper examines women’s experiences with decision-making about non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT). Such tests offer knowledge about chromosomal disorders early in pregnancy, without the risk of miscarriage associated with invasive procedures such as amniocentesis. Based on qualitative interviews with women in Germany who used, or declined, NIPT, we show how some women, who would not consider amniocentesis due to the risk of miscarriage, wel…
Methoden ethnologischer Feldforschung
Ethnologists collect their data “in the field”, i.e. in the living environment of the examined, and not like other scientists in the laboratory, at home or in the library. Field research is the central method of the subject and includes various methods of data collection. The volume conveys basic knowledge of empirical data collection and thus serves as a practical guide – for both teachers and students. The authors, who all teach at German-speak…
Identity Constructions and Dayak Ethnic Strife in West Kalimantan, Indonesia
This article discusses the construction of Dayak identity in the context of a violent conflict between local indigenous Dayaks and migrant Madurese in West Kalimantan province between late 1996 and early 1997. The conflict was widely regarded as an ‘ethnic’ conflict and, especially for the Dayaks who were involved in the violence, the idea of a fixed, Borneo-wide, (pan-)Dayak identity versus a common Madurese enemy was crucial. This notion of a u…
Making Kinship in Switzerland and Beyond: Imaginations and Substances
This special issue deals with the making of kinship through medical, political, affective, and legal technologies. While this primarily refers to the creation of kinship through medically assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization or gamete donation, it also includes further techniques of making kinship such as marriages, the establishment of so-called ‘donor siblingship’, and more general ways of creating belonging and an …
Reprowebs: A conceptual approach to elasticity and change in the global assisted reproduction industry
In the last few decades, assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) have become increasingly transregional and transnational, often involving travel within or between countries or even continents. Until recently, the global ART industry was marked by so-called ‘reprohubs’—places (such as southern California, Dubai, Anand, and Mumbai) specializing in the provision of reproductive services. While reprohubs continue to exist, in the last few years, m…
Reproductive Entanglements in Times of War: Transnational Gestational Surrogacy in Ukraine and Beyond
Until early 2022, within the global fertility industry, Ukraine was one of the most important destinations for reproductive travel worldwide, particularly specializing in gestational surrogacy for international intended parents. Already weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions, the surrogacy market, and here especially surrogates and intended parents, was strongly affected by the Russian invasion in February 2022. In this articl…
Shifting surrogacies: Comparative ethnographies
Gestational surrogacy is a reproductive arrangement where a woman gestates a child for others—the “intended parents”—in order to be handed over to them after birth. Since the turn of the millennium, demands for surrogacy have continuously increased due to social and demographic changes, rising rates of infertility, and the normalization of new, non-heteronormative, family forms. Many countries prohibit surrogacy, and others that previously permit…
Methoden ethnologischer Feldforschung
Ethnologists collect their data “in the field”, i.e. in the living environment of the examined, and not like other scientists in the laboratory, at home or in the library. Field research is the central method of the subject and includes various methods of data collection. The volume conveys basic knowledge of empirical data collection and thus serves as a practical guide – for both teachers and students. The authors, who all teach at German-speak…
Identity Constructions and Dayak Ethnic Strife in West Kalimantan, Indonesia
This article discusses the construction of Dayak identity in the context of a violent conflict between local indigenous Dayaks and migrant Madurese in West Kalimantan province between late 1996 and early 1997. The conflict was widely regarded as an ‘ethnic’ conflict and, especially for the Dayaks who were involved in the violence, the idea of a fixed, Borneo-wide, (pan-)Dayak identity versus a common Madurese enemy was crucial. This notion of a u…
Im/mobility in the transnational surrogacy market: Disruptions and vulnerabilities in and beyond pandemic times
Based on in-depth interviews and non-participant observation collected with various actors in four surrogacy markets (India, the U.S. Germany, and Ukraine), in this paper we examine the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic on the infrastructure of the global surrogacy industry. Our findings detail the fallout of the immobilized assisted reproductive technology (ART) industry and point to the ways various stakeholders have worked to maintain its…
Paperwork: Following the trail of (identity) papers in transnational commercial surrogacy
Transnational surrogacy—the carrying of a child by a woman in one country on behalf of persons in another—is strongly shaped by documents. Of these, identity documents are particularly crucial as they establish the belonging of a child born through such an arrangement both to its parents (birth certificate) and to a country (passport). However, the acquisition of these documents is subject to national laws that may contradict one another in trans…
Activism Was a Survival Strategy: Chronic Illness and the Power of Endometriosis Activism as Work
This article is part of the special issue "Laboring from Ex-Centric Sites: Disability, Chronicity and Work", Anthropology of Work Review 46(1), July 2025, edited by Giorgio Brocco and Stefanie Mauksch. In this article, we take the example of endometriosis activism to explore the interrelationship between chronic illness, activism, and work. Endometriosis is a life-limiting condition affecting at least one in ten girls and women, and unmeasured nu…
Making Kinship in Switzerland and Beyond: Imaginations and Substances
This special issue deals with the making of kinship through medical, political, affective, and legal technologies. While this primarily refers to the creation of kinship through medically assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization or gamete donation, it also includes further techniques of making kinship such as marriages, the establishment of so-called ‘donor siblingship’, and more general ways of creating belonging and an …
Making Kinship in Switzerland and Beyond: Imaginations and Substances
This special issue deals with the making of kinship through medical, political, affective, and legal technologies. While this primarily refers to the creation of kinship through medically assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization or gamete donation, it also includes further techniques of making kinship such as marriages, the establishment of so-called ‘donor siblingship’, and more general ways of creating belonging and an …
Identity Constructions and Dayak Ethnic Strife in West Kalimantan, Indonesia
This article discusses the construction of Dayak identity in the context of a violent conflict between local indigenous Dayaks and migrant Madurese in West Kalimantan province between late 1996 and early 1997. The conflict was widely regarded as an ‘ethnic’ conflict and, especially for the Dayaks who were involved in the violence, the idea of a fixed, Borneo-wide, (pan-)Dayak identity versus a common Madurese enemy was crucial. This notion of a u…
Digitale Ethnographie
Reproductive health in the time of Sars‐CoV‐2
Decision-making about non-invasive prenatal testing: Women’s moral reasoning in the absence of a risk of miscarriage in Germany
This paper examines women’s experiences with decision-making about non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT). Such tests offer knowledge about chromosomal disorders early in pregnancy, without the risk of miscarriage associated with invasive procedures such as amniocentesis. Based on qualitative interviews with women in Germany who used, or declined, NIPT, we show how some women, who would not consider amniocentesis due to the risk of miscarriage, wel…
Methoden ethnologischer Feldforschung
Ethnologists collect their data “in the field”, i.e. in the living environment of the examined, and not like other scientists in the laboratory, at home or in the library. Field research is the central method of the subject and includes various methods of data collection. The volume conveys basic knowledge of empirical data collection and thus serves as a practical guide – for both teachers and students. The authors, who all teach at German-speak…
Reprowebs: A conceptual approach to elasticity and change in the global assisted reproduction industry
In the last few decades, assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) have become increasingly transregional and transnational, often involving travel within or between countries or even continents. Until recently, the global ART industry was marked by so-called ‘reprohubs’—places (such as southern California, Dubai, Anand, and Mumbai) specializing in the provision of reproductive services. While reprohubs continue to exist, in the last few years, m…
Shifting surrogacies: Comparative ethnographies
Gestational surrogacy is a reproductive arrangement where a woman gestates a child for others—the “intended parents”—in order to be handed over to them after birth. Since the turn of the millennium, demands for surrogacy have continuously increased due to social and demographic changes, rising rates of infertility, and the normalization of new, non-heteronormative, family forms. Many countries prohibit surrogacy, and others that previously permit…
Paperwork: Following the trail of (identity) papers in transnational commercial surrogacy
Transnational surrogacy—the carrying of a child by a woman in one country on behalf of persons in another—is strongly shaped by documents. Of these, identity documents are particularly crucial as they establish the belonging of a child born through such an arrangement both to its parents (birth certificate) and to a country (passport). However, the acquisition of these documents is subject to national laws that may contradict one another in trans…
Im/mobility in the transnational surrogacy market: Disruptions and vulnerabilities in and beyond pandemic times
Based on in-depth interviews and non-participant observation collected with various actors in four surrogacy markets (India, the U.S. Germany, and Ukraine), in this paper we examine the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic on the infrastructure of the global surrogacy industry. Our findings detail the fallout of the immobilized assisted reproductive technology (ART) industry and point to the ways various stakeholders have worked to maintain its…
Reproductive Entanglements in Times of War: Transnational Gestational Surrogacy in Ukraine and Beyond
Until early 2022, within the global fertility industry, Ukraine was one of the most important destinations for reproductive travel worldwide, particularly specializing in gestational surrogacy for international intended parents. Already weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions, the surrogacy market, and here especially surrogates and intended parents, was strongly affected by the Russian invasion in February 2022. In this articl…
I am happy to be alive, but I prefer to have children without my chronic disease”: Chronically ill persons’ views on reproduction and genetic testing for their own condition
In Germany, the debate on preimplantation and prenatal testing is heavily influenced by the idea of an antagonism between prospective parents and their potential children. Underlying this antagonism is the assumption that prospective parents follow an ableist logic and do not regard the lives of children with a chronic illness as “worth living”. Taking the example of two rare genetic illnesses, Marfan Syndrome and Cystic Fibrosis, we investigate …
Anticipating the future: Reproductive decision-making among people with cystic fibrosis in Germany
In this article, we explore reproductive decision-making among adults with a rare genetic chronic disease: Cystic Fibrosis (CF). CF is hereditary and can be tested for at various moments in prospective parent's reproductive trajectory, namely before, during or after pregnancy. Based on 15 interviews with persons with CF in Germany who at the time of the interviews were considering having a child, were pregnant, already had a child, or had decided…
Activism Was a Survival Strategy: Chronic Illness and the Power of Endometriosis Activism as Work
This article is part of the special issue "Laboring from Ex-Centric Sites: Disability, Chronicity and Work", Anthropology of Work Review 46(1), July 2025, edited by Giorgio Brocco and Stefanie Mauksch. In this article, we take the example of endometriosis activism to explore the interrelationship between chronic illness, activism, and work. Endometriosis is a life-limiting condition affecting at least one in ten girls and women, and unmeasured nu…
Transnational reproductive brokers in crisis
Sociology (10 works) · Reproductive Health and Technologies (7 works) · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences (6 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Political science (5 works) · 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak (4 works) · Biology (4 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Law (4 works)