Populationism

In our seminar this week, we deeply explored the topic of populationism. To frame my understanding, I used the reading: A feminist exploration of populationism: engaging in contemporary forms of population control. 

I will begin by providing my understanding of populationism; secondly, i will address how my research interest ties into populationism and lastly, i will explore populationism through the creative work - What Happened to Monday. 

In the late 20th century, population control had become a solution to what was understood as the global concern of overpopulation. This concern had become so widespread that the proposed solution of population control had received attention and financial support from powerful institutions globally. This threat had become so worrisome that it affected laws and policies of some countries and had even permeated through pop culture The use of the term populationism aims to bring attention to the various ways of discussing and comprehending the environmental and social problems surrounding population control as well as exploring the mechanisms within population control that reinforce inequalities such as race, class, gender and more.

The reading alluded to three types of populationisms: I will briefly explore all three. 

Demopopulationism:

the aim fo this was to ensure that the populations compose of the optimal population size and composition. For example, the number of native-born individuals versus immigrants in the country. In order to achieve this, the enforcers of demopopulationism need to have knowledge on the demographics of the population as well as have a method to surveil this.

There are three components to demopopulationism: 

I. The creation of population data that functions as a method of maintaining social hierarchy 

II. The continued efforts to suppress the fertility of some individuals whilst encouraging the fertility of others 

III. Promotion of self-disciplined subjects who are able to regulate their own fertility through methods such as family planning.

These components are often implemented through state population control policies and are often not in the favour of marginalised individuals. 

Geopopulationism:

this is the direct and indirect approaches to population control through how space is made and managed. It is achieved through the management and surveillance of the space that excludes or includes certain people in the space. For example, through the strengthening of national borders. To directly reference a quote from the reading "space produces and it is produced by society" (Bhatia et al., 2020: 339). To me, this means that space is a concept that is constructed by society and as such allows for certain people to feel like they govern who is allowed in the space as well as the access to the resources in the space (for example, Donald Trump wanting to build a wall to prevent people from crossing the US-Mexico border). 

A Important consideration is how history played a role in the consideration of space. In South Africa for example, one could look at apartheid and how certain spaces were closed off to people of colour as they were deemed as White Only spaces. 

https://www.newsweek.com/only-whites-should-apply-south-africa-tv-network-fires-recruiters-after-racist-690656

Biopopulationism 

speaks into how bodies are treated as commodities as well as how some lifestyles are promoted above the lifestyles of others. An improved quality of life is promised to individuals who participate as buyers and sellers in these consumer markets. Individuals are made to feel like they are contributors of health and well being of nation states. Language is used to reinforce this idea.

https://www.westernfertility.com/gender-selection/

The strategies within biopopulationism places an importance on individual desires and family composition. An example of this, could be selective reproduction in order to avoid disease and debility. In the seminar we explored this critically through asking each other: What is disease? What is disability/ debility? Does everyone define these the same way? Furthermore, we explored the concept of how blackness has been treated as a disability in society. 

One of the biggest concerns of the authors was how laws and policies were used to control female bodies under the guise of self empowerment, promoting economic development and reducing environmental degradation. As mentioned above, the language makes it seem as though one is doing the right thing for themselves and the nation however, if one deeply looks at populationism; it is still controlling the fertility of individuals. These interventions shape reproductive agency through an embodied environmental responsibility through contraceptive use (or other family planning methods). In using these contraceptive methods; individuals will be executing their social "responsibility" of slowing down the population growth (and in turn, alleviating environmental pressure).

In order to understand populationism fully one needs to consider the power dynamics that occur within it. One of the largest reasons why population control is so problematic is because the message conveyed is that it is "beneficial to all people/ humanity" (Bhatia, 2020 :335) when it is really oppressive. 

It removes autonomy especially from women of colour in poorer communities or those who are incarcerated. One can view this through biopopulationist strategies which seek to encourage white middle-class women to make use of conceptive technologies (referring back to the Western Fertility Institute and gender balancing; another important thing to note is how the advertisement makes use of the white nuclear family) whereas contraceptive intervention and policies are often targeted towards women in poorer women of colour in an effort to place a limitation on these communities. These restrictions can include: restriction on welfare services, increased imprisonment and stricter immigration policies. 

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2017/07/safe-effective-family-planning-is-key-to-empowering-people-developing-nations-un/

In the article -  Perpetuating neo-colonialism through population control: South Africa and the United States, the author states that there is an unequal concentration of population policies amongst third world populations as compared to first world populations (in other words, there are more family planning interventions targeted towards third world countries). This can demonstrate how the fertility of first would countries are encouraged whereas the fertility of third world countries are dissuaded (in addition to this, often when speaking about third world countries Africa is a focal point in these discourses).

Women of colour are often regarded as responsible for their own poverty and underdevelopment 

and this belief often alludes to their population growth being the reason. This is highly problematic as it does not acknowledge the impact that colonialism had on these populations (Kumba, 1993).

For my creative work, i will be discussing the movie: What happened to Monday and touch on how this links to populationism.

A quick synopsis of the movie: 

What happened to Monday is a science fiction film set in 2073. In this world, there is a growing concern about overpopulation, famine and limited fossil fuels. As a response to this, the government implemented a policy where families were only allowed to have one child. This policy was actually influenced by the One child policy that occurred in China until 2016. 

In the movie, the one child policy was surveilled by the child allocation bureau agents (also known as C.A.B agents). If a family had more than one child, they were forced to place the second child in Cryosleep ( a technologically induced coma ) which would wake them up in the future (a utopia). The story follows the lives of septuplets who live under the identity of Karen Settman and only leave the house on their allocated day. Each child is named after one day of the week and in order to assume the identity of Karen Settman; they are required to tell each other about the events of the day in detail, wear the sane ID bracelet and keep up the same appearance when they go out. This all goes to plan until one day Monday goes missing and the sisters need to risk their lives to find out what happened to her. 

https://philosophyinfilm.com/2017/12/16/review-what-happened-to-monday-2017/

This movie is an example of demopopulationism and biopopulationism

Demopopulationism: individuals in the movie were limited to only having one child, and if they had more - it would have real consequences. Furthermore, the government had access to deographic knowledge and they were able to surveil this through ID bracelets and C.A.B agents.

When this policy was violated, drastic measures were taken. The C.A.B agents would try and kill the siblings. 

Biopopulationism: The governments convinced the families that if they had another child, they would just need to put the second child to sleep and the baby will wake up in a better world; throughout the movie we see the government continuously telling the families that they were doing the responsible thing for the country as well as for the fate of their future children. Later on we find out this is under false pretences and the children were being incinerated. 

To conclude, population control definitely needs to be looked at through a feminist lens. This was we can understand the ways in which individuals (especially women of colour in poorer communities) are affected. Furthermore, the policies and interventions as a result of population control need to be examined especially considering who these policies and interventions are targeted towards.