Project MUSE - Intimate Strangers
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Intimate Strangers: Commercial Surrogacy in Russia and Ukraine and the Making of Truth
In this Book
Additional Information
Intimate Strangers: Commercial Surrogacy in Russia and Ukraine and the Making of Truth
Book
Veronika Siegl
2023
Published by:
Cornell University Press
Table of Contents
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summary
Winner of the Sharon Stephens Prize of the American Ethnological Society
Zooming in on commercial surrogacy in Russia and Ukraine,
Intimate Strangers
addresses market expansion into the intimate spheres of life that play out on women's bodies as mothers and workers.
Veronika Siegl follows the inner workings of a surrogacy market marked by secrecy, distrust, and anonymous business relationships. She explores intended mothers' anxious struggles for a child in light of stigmatized infertility and the aggressive biopolitics of motherhood; the uncertain but pragmatic pathways in and out of fertility clinics as surrogates navigate harsh economic realities and resist being objectified or morally judged; and the powerful role of agents and doctors who have found a profitable niche in nurturing and facilitating other people's existential hopes.
Intimate Strangers
discusses these issues against the backdrop of ultra-conservatism and moral governance in Russia, the rising international popularity of the Ukrainian surrogacy market, and the pervasiveness of neo-liberal ideologies and individualized notions of reproductive freedom.
Thanks to generous funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation, the ebook editions of this book are available as open access volumes through the Cornell Open initiative.
Table of Contents
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Cover
Title, Copyright, Dedication
pp. i-vi
Contents
pp. vii-viii
Acknowledgments
pp. ix-xii
Preliminary Notes
pp. xiii-xv
Introduction
pp. 1-28
Part I
1. The Biopolitics of Motherhood
pp. 31-55
2. Secret Conceptions
pp. 56-80
Part II
3. Choreographing Surrogacy
pp. 83-111
4. Doing It Business-Style
pp. 112-135
5. Technologies of Alignment
pp. 136-162
Part III
6. Laboring with Happiness
pp. 165-192
7. Ambivalences of Freedom
pp. 193-216
Conclusion
pp. 217-234
Afterword: Surrogacy in Times of War
pp. 235-239
Appendix: Research Participants
pp. 241-247
Notes
pp. 249-256
References
pp. 257-280
Index
pp. 281-287
Additional Information
ISBN
9781501769931
Related ISBN(s)
9781501769917, 9781501769948, 9781501771316
DOI
10.1353/book.103735
MARC Record
OCLC
1394872717
Pages
306
Launched on MUSE
2025-03-01
Language
Open Access
Yes
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