The techniques related to reproduction are progressively transforming the female body into a machine functional to conception. In the past, reproductive biology was an aspect of labour. We recall, for instance, how the breastfeeding of the children of women from the wealthier classes was performed by paid wet nurses, an antecedent to the use of female bodies by the labour market. However, today with the emergence of the bio-economy, new forms of use of the female body are emerging. Therefore, an economy based on incorporeal, intangible assets like knowledge is flanked by one comprising undeniably material goods like the human body (the womb, the umbilical cord, seminal fluid, etc.) on which the transnational human reproduction trade is based. While aware that we are in the face of a natural evolution of human experience, we cannot but recognise the problematic nature of these changes and propose a formative model as radical as the changes that these events cause. Pedagogy, due to its identity, as well as to its critical and contestative function, interwoven with its commitment to politic, as a pro-civilization project, and to ethics, the goal of which is human wellbeing, can conjure up “outdated” models of education and training, capable of rejecting the narcissism and conformity that characterise contemporary life. As far as practice is concerned, radical pedagogy can intervene in issues regarding the education and training of those carry out research and who, because of the excessive fragmentation of knowledge, cannot always obtain the overall view they need to be able to foresee the consequences the outcomes of their work suggest. This kind of pedagogy can also have an impact on the community, on the increasingly unconscious succubus of an ideologically neo-liberal project which has set in motion a process capable of influencing individuals, causing them to “renounce thinking” when it comes to addressing problems related to women’s health and the future generations.

Perspectives for a “Radical” Brand of Pedagogy. Gender, Techno-sciences and the Economy of Bodies

Anna Grazia Lopez
2018-01-01

Abstract

The techniques related to reproduction are progressively transforming the female body into a machine functional to conception. In the past, reproductive biology was an aspect of labour. We recall, for instance, how the breastfeeding of the children of women from the wealthier classes was performed by paid wet nurses, an antecedent to the use of female bodies by the labour market. However, today with the emergence of the bio-economy, new forms of use of the female body are emerging. Therefore, an economy based on incorporeal, intangible assets like knowledge is flanked by one comprising undeniably material goods like the human body (the womb, the umbilical cord, seminal fluid, etc.) on which the transnational human reproduction trade is based. While aware that we are in the face of a natural evolution of human experience, we cannot but recognise the problematic nature of these changes and propose a formative model as radical as the changes that these events cause. Pedagogy, due to its identity, as well as to its critical and contestative function, interwoven with its commitment to politic, as a pro-civilization project, and to ethics, the goal of which is human wellbeing, can conjure up “outdated” models of education and training, capable of rejecting the narcissism and conformity that characterise contemporary life. As far as practice is concerned, radical pedagogy can intervene in issues regarding the education and training of those carry out research and who, because of the excessive fragmentation of knowledge, cannot always obtain the overall view they need to be able to foresee the consequences the outcomes of their work suggest. This kind of pedagogy can also have an impact on the community, on the increasingly unconscious succubus of an ideologically neo-liberal project which has set in motion a process capable of influencing individuals, causing them to “renounce thinking” when it comes to addressing problems related to women’s health and the future generations.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11369/374511
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