Participants

Discussion

In the center of this roundtable are the ideas and policies of motherhood seen in connection to the constructions of the nation. While the nationalist projects historically were “Encouraging, discouraging, and sometimes forcing women to have or not to have children” (Yuval-Davis 1996), the modern national states were not less preoccupied by the “quality” of upbringing and educating the “future citizens”. The contemporary nation-states often express “demographic anxieties” of different kinds and have many explicit and implicit expectations and demands for mothers and it is the aim of this panel to explore some of them.  In particular, we are interested in how much and in which ways the nationalist constructions of motherhood are disrupting the policies aimed for defense of women’s rights. Other themes of this roundtable are selective pronatalism in childcare and reproductive health policies. The participants of this roundtable are focusing on several countries of Eastern Europe including Lithuania and Czech Republic, authoritarian politics of motherhood in Russia and on mothering of (Muslim) migrants from the postsocialist countries to Sweden.

NOTE: Prof. Andrea Petö can participate only remotely!!!!!