Biomoc a reprodukční biomedicína: konceptuální inspirace pro český kontext
Biopower and Reproductive Biomedicine: a Conceptual Inspiration for Czech Sociology of Medicine

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the concept of biopower as it relates to contemporary reproductive medicine. It puts forth analytical frames for understanding the ways in which the power and hegemony of modern Western medicine (biomedicine) are applied and negotiated in the fi eld of human reproduction, and it proposes possible uses for such frames in the sociological study of Czech reproductive medicine. It deals mainly with biopower and biopolitics as analytical concepts pertaining to the control and administration of the modern population, governmentality, medicalisation, and authoritative knowledge. The article conceives biomedicine as a sign of the normalisation of modern society, identifi ed with the Western concept of health and illness and the idea of technological progress, and subjects it to critical sociological analysis. It focuses on an analysis of reproductive medicine, a key sphere of biopower. In the context of biopower, analysis of the normative nature of reproductive medicine and its consequences in the wider social space is signifi cant.

• Details
• Contents