A Pregnant Pause? Reproduction, waiting and silences in the relational endurance of austerity

Bibliographic Data

ID8944202
AuthorsSuzanne M Hall (0000-0002-6379-4544, University of Manchester, corresponding author), Sarah Marie Hall
Year2023
Volume142
Pages103755-103755
Publication date2023-05-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeoforum (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-7185 • E-ISSN: 1872-9398
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103755
OpenAlexW4382315223
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited42

This paper brings together relational geographical writings on the politics of waiting, austerity and social reproduction, and also speaks to feminist methodology and praxis. I draw on a recent research project exploring experiences of reproduction in austerity, in particular having any or more children, to think about how austerity in the UK is endured in everyday life. I engage with geographical ideas about temporality – pauses, silences and futures – to unpick everyday and intimate experiences of economic change in the UK. I offer multiple interpretations of 'a pregnant pause' in this context. Firstly, of pausing and waiting ‘with’ decisions to having any or more children as a direct result of changes in the name of ‘austerity’: welfare cuts, precarious housing, unaffordable childcare etc. Secondly, the pauses and silences in public discussions about the economic impacts of austerity on reproduction, as a rarely shared experience and one that participants seldom spoke to anyone else about. And thirdly, the literal pauses and silences in verbal discussions on this topic, and how to respond in method and praxis. In doing so, I refocus discussions about the everyday life of austerity towards a relational politics of endurance

Austerity · Biology · Economics · Political science · Politics · Reproduction · Ecology · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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