Faulty Deployments

Persuading Women and Constructing Choice in Egypt

Bibliographic Data

ID2108170
AuthorsKamran Asdar Ali (The University of Texas at Austin, corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume44
Issue2
Pages370-394
Publication date2002-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative Studies in Society and History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-4175 • E-ISSN: 1475-2999
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0010417502000178
OpenAlexW2136442073
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited9

The aim of this paper is to discuss how in the wider context of capital expansion and accumulation in the late twentieth century development initiatives in general, and family planning in particular, have helped to train and produce new bodies and selves. Using the Egyptian case as an example, I argue that family planning programs do not just reduce the number of children and regulate reproduction; they also introduce or foster notions of individual choice and responsibility, risk aversion, and personal independence. In short, they help to construct a new kind of individuality which is guided by legal constructs of citizenship rather than by communitarian and familial control. Such a construction must be further situated within the global political economy that reorganizes markets and labor relations, and subsequently requires individuals to abstractly self-regulate themselves and respond to the pressures of want and self-interest (Scott 1995:211

Agency (philosophy) · Capital (architecture) · Citizenship · Construct (python library) · Context (archaeology) · Economics · Geography · Independence (probability theory) · Order (exchange) · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Reproduction · Situated · Social science · Sociology · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Religion, Society, and Development

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