Lowe Pam, Lee Ellie, Macvarish Jan
School of Languages and Social Science, Aston University , Birmingham , UK.
School of Sociology Social Policy and Social Research, University of Kent , Canterbury , UK.
Health Risk Soc. 2015 Jan 2;17(1):15-29. doi: 10.1080/13698575.2014.994479. Epub 2015 Jan 6.
In recent years, English welfare and health policy has started to include pregnancy within the foundation stage of child development. The foetus is also increasingly designated as 'at risk' from pregnant women. In this article, we draw on an analysis of a purposive sample of English social and welfare policies and closely related advocacy documents to trace the emergence of neuroscientific claims-making in relation to the family. In this article, we show that a specific deterministic understanding of the developing brain that only has a loose relationship with current scientific evidence is an important component in these changes. We examine the ways in which pregnancy is situated in these debates. In these debates, maternal stress is identified as a risk to the foetus; however, the selective concern with women living in disadvantage undermines biological claims. The policy claim of neurological 'critical windows' also seems to be influenced by social concerns. Hence, these emerging concerns over the foetus' developing brain seem to be situated within the gendered history of policing women's pregnant bodies rather than acting on new insights from scientific discoveries. By situating these developments within the broader framework of risk consciousness, we can link these changes to wider understandings of the 'at risk' child and intensified surveillance over family life.
近年来，英国的福利与健康政策已开始将孕期纳入儿童发育的基础阶段。胎儿也越来越多地被认定为受到孕妇的“威胁”。在本文中，我们通过对英国社会和福利政策以及密切相关的倡导文件的目标样本进行分析，来追溯与家庭相关的神经科学主张的出现。在本文中，我们表明，对发育中大脑的一种特定的决定论理解（这种理解与当前科学证据仅有松散的联系）是这些变化的一个重要组成部分。我们审视了孕期在这些辩论中的定位方式。在这些辩论中，母体压力被认定为对胎儿的一种风险；然而，对处于不利地位女性的选择性关注削弱了生物学主张。神经学“关键窗口期”的政策主张似乎也受到社会关注的影响。因此，这些对胎儿发育中大脑的新关注似乎处于监管女性孕期身体的性别化历史之中，而非基于科学发现的新见解。通过将这些发展置于风险意识的更广泛框架内，我们可以将这些变化与对“处于风险”儿童的更广泛理解以及对家庭生活的强化监控联系起来。
