Fogamzás és terhességmegszakítás – Magzat-irodalom a kortárs francia szociológiában
Conception and abortion – Foetus-literature in the contemporary French sociology

A few words about the social context

Summary/Abstract: There is no decline in the number of abortions in France for 40 years, for several reasons. Gender roles and medical power are often contradicting each other: contraception stands at the cross point of different normative logics. Another tendency is the decline in unplanned pregnancy rates, and the increasing number of planned babies. These phenomena have led some French sociologists to elaborate theories not independent from the new interest in foetus in contemporary sociology. Luc Boltanski discusses the relationship between project capitalism and parenting, willingness to have children and tries to develop an anthropological and phenomenological concept of abortion and conception. Dominique Memmi improves the bio-power theory of Foucault by researching the everyday circumstances of abortion, and the new governing forms of bodies by public authorities, the concrete practice, e.g. contraception, induced and therapeutic abortion. This study is based, on the one hand, on the empirical data collected of INED, and on the other hand, on contemporary French social theories and medical anthropologies.

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