Low fertility in Italy has been framed as a serious social problem in the last two decades. Demographers began to warn about declining birth rates in the 1990s, and by the 2000s the issue became a target of political action, with pro-fertility becoming a widespread “common sense” position across the ideological spectrum. The epitome of pronatalism occurred with the 2016 “Fertility Day”, a controversial campaign by the Ministry of Health to encourage citizens to look after their fertility, with an eye on combating low birth rates (Ministero della Salute 2016). The literature shows that this panic over fertility is not motivated solely by demographic reasons, but represents “a reflection of anxieties about wide-scale changes in Italy, including the erosion of patriarchal power, the reorganization of class structures, and ethnic changes due to immigration” (Brown & Ferree 2005:9). In order to better understand the way in which such discourse is ideologically charged, it is useful to adopt the concept of biopolitics developed by Foucault (1978). Succinctly, biopolitics can be defined as governance technology that measures, regulates and controls population, with the aim of preserving the national group and upholding the political status quo. In this respect, it has been argued that pronatalist views in Italy push forward the assumption that a healthy, cohesive society must be based on heterosexual, Italian- born nuclear families with two or more children (Krause 2005). My paper thus explores how pronatalist discourse in Italy functions as a form of biopolitics designed to advocate for “traditional” ideas of society. My analysis focuses on the 2016 National Fertility Plan (Ministero della Salute 2016), a document that represents the most apparent manifestation of the pronatalist cultural climate in Italy. The tool of thematic analysis is used to identify the key patterns that emerge from the data in relation to gender, sexuality and the role of the state in governing its citizens' fertility. Preliminary findings highlight a predominance of conservative attitudes toward families in the document and a wish to encourage new births through extremely pervasive intervention by the state.
"Defending Italians' fertility": a thematic analysis of the 2015 National Fertility Plan as a case of pronatalist politics / Bernardini, Vittoria. - (2018). (Intervento presentato al convegno ESA/RN27 Mid-Term Conference 2018 Social Structures, Culture and Institutions in Southern European Societies tenutosi a Catania; Italy).
"Defending Italians' fertility": a thematic analysis of the 2015 National Fertility Plan as a case of pronatalist politics
BERNARDINI, VITTORIA
2018
Abstract
Low fertility in Italy has been framed as a serious social problem in the last two decades. Demographers began to warn about declining birth rates in the 1990s, and by the 2000s the issue became a target of political action, with pro-fertility becoming a widespread “common sense” position across the ideological spectrum. The epitome of pronatalism occurred with the 2016 “Fertility Day”, a controversial campaign by the Ministry of Health to encourage citizens to look after their fertility, with an eye on combating low birth rates (Ministero della Salute 2016). The literature shows that this panic over fertility is not motivated solely by demographic reasons, but represents “a reflection of anxieties about wide-scale changes in Italy, including the erosion of patriarchal power, the reorganization of class structures, and ethnic changes due to immigration” (Brown & Ferree 2005:9). In order to better understand the way in which such discourse is ideologically charged, it is useful to adopt the concept of biopolitics developed by Foucault (1978). Succinctly, biopolitics can be defined as governance technology that measures, regulates and controls population, with the aim of preserving the national group and upholding the political status quo. In this respect, it has been argued that pronatalist views in Italy push forward the assumption that a healthy, cohesive society must be based on heterosexual, Italian- born nuclear families with two or more children (Krause 2005). My paper thus explores how pronatalist discourse in Italy functions as a form of biopolitics designed to advocate for “traditional” ideas of society. My analysis focuses on the 2016 National Fertility Plan (Ministero della Salute 2016), a document that represents the most apparent manifestation of the pronatalist cultural climate in Italy. The tool of thematic analysis is used to identify the key patterns that emerge from the data in relation to gender, sexuality and the role of the state in governing its citizens' fertility. Preliminary findings highlight a predominance of conservative attitudes toward families in the document and a wish to encourage new births through extremely pervasive intervention by the state.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
