by Jane Jenson, Université de Montréal

The word “mother” traditionally means a woman who bears and nurtures a child. In recent decades, changes in social norms and public policy as well as advances in reproductive technologies and the development of markets for procreation and care have radically altered definitions of motherhood. It is useful, therefore, to consider the transformation of motherhood as both an identity and a role. Processes of bearing and rearing a child are being restructured as reproductive labor and care work alter around the globe, with changes following technology (artificial reproductive technologies, surrogacy, fetal ultrasounds), law (adoption, the legal status of kinship) and modified practices of care. Complex chains of procreation and childcare have simultaneously generated greater liberty and new forms of constraint. Emphasizing the tension between the liberalization of procreation and care on the one hand, and the limits to their democratization due to race, class, and global inequality on the other, the presentation considers some debates that have emerged as these multifaceted changes have led to both the fragmentation and reassembling of motherhood. Biography Jane Jenson is a Professor of Political Science emerita at the Université de Montréal, an Associate Fellow in the Successful Societies Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and member of the Royal Society of Canada since 1989. She has been a Visiting Professor at a number of European universities as well as in New Zealand. In 1988-89 she was the W.L. Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies at Harvard University.  Her current research interests and publications cover social citizenship, including social investment, social innovation, and social rights. She has published frequently on the gendering consequences of public policies and the role of women’s movements in making claims for gender equality, in Canada, the European Union and Latin America. She publishes frequently in scholarly journals in English and French and is actively involved in advising policy communities in Canada and the EU. Her most recent book is: Reassembling Motherhood. Procreation and Care in a Globalized World, Columbia University Press, 2017 (co-edited with Yasmine Ergas and Sonya Michel). Monday 28th January, 12 am - 2 pm Stein Rokkan Room (S12.234) Building S - Level 12 Institut de Sociologie Avenue Jeanne, 44 1050 Bruxelles Free entry