Contraception across Cultures: Technologies, Choices, Constraints

Description

Contraception is an issue of considerable concern to a great many heterosexually active people. Yet the impact of contraceptive technologies in the world today, in particular their implications for kinship, gender relations, and other aspects of social life, receives relatively little scholarly attention. This book brings a new perspective to the study of contraception, by collecting together in one volume leading experts in the fields of contraception, family planning and reproductive health. Contributors look at the social, economic, political and cultural contexts in which contraceptive providers and recipients make decisions about whether and what forms of contraception to use. User perspectives (whether those of recipients or providers of contraceptive services) are taken seriously, as are the perspectives of policy-makers and development experts. With its in-depth, case-study approach, this challenging book will appeal to practitioners and planners in the fields of family planning and reproductive health, as well as to students and academics of applied and medical anthropology, health studies, gender and development studies, or anyone interested in the social, cultural and ethical issues raised by contraceptive technologies.

Andrew Russell University of Durham Elisa Sobo Trauma Research Scientist,Children's Hospital, San Diego Mary Thompson DFID-Guyana

'Every library should consider it in their purchasing lists for readers of the thinking kind.' Faculty Magazine 'The greatest strength of the volume is the way it suggests major weaknesses in the cross-national survey research that has come to dominate the field of demography.' Population Studies 'Readers ... will enjoy the constructive contribution of Contraception Across Cultures.' Social Science and Medicine