Parentality: Cornerstone of reproductive governance

Abstract

In this article, we propose to reflect on “parenthood,” a theme that is currently emerging in family policies throughout the Western world. Using sociological and historical supports, with data drawn from cases in the United States, Brazil, Argentina and western Europe, we examine the operationalization of certain notions of good and bad childcare, manifested in terms such as “battered children,” “child abuse,” “neglect” and “positive parenting”. By examining these notions of good and bad parenting in different circumstances and at different times, looking at both the influence of experts and the moralities that find expression in parental subjectivities, we intend to provoke a reflection on where and who creates these mechanisms of governance, as well their role in processes of stratified reproduction. We end by suggesting that positive parenting is to poor and discriminated families what whiteness is to marginalized races.  As long as silence reigns about this reference standard and the criteria for its definition (laden in many cases not so much with scientific evidence as with class and color preconceptions), we will not go far in understanding the problematic classifications embedded in the hierarchical and unequal infrastructures of childhood governance, nor in appreciating the plural ways of being and existing in the world.