IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v39y2021i8p1725-1736.html

“Wait for a permanent contract†: The temporal politics of (in)fertility as an early career researcher

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah M Hughes

Abstract

The impetus for this intervention comes from my own experiences of advice to ‘wait for a permanent contract’ before trying to conceive a child. I contend that this considerate guidance, frequently given to Early Career Researchers, nonetheless re-inscribes a linear capitalist temporality, and that there is a need to resist this binding of the temporalities of (in)fertility to the metrics of the neoliberal academy. I suggest that to promote ‘waiting’ negates the nonlinear, everyday and intimate politics of our varied, embodied experiences of (in)fertility. It is also grounded within problematic assumptions: first, that waiting is linear; that we will arrive at a permanent job in the future, if we persist with the present; and second, that our (in)fertility is known to us, that we are able to, and will, make a rational decision to conceive a child. These are pervasive assumptions with deeply personal implications. Moreover, they are compounded by the short-term contracts, and expectations of institutional mobility that characterise many experiences of UK academia. My hope for this piece is that it invites geographers to further explore embodied politics of (in)fertility.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah M Hughes, 2021. "“Wait for a permanent contract†: The temporal politics of (in)fertility as an early career researcher," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(8), pages 1725-1736, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:39:y:2021:i:8:p:1725-1736
    DOI: 10.1177/2399654421994852
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2399654421994852
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2399654421994852?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simon Szreter & Eilidh Garrett, 2000. "Reproduction, Compositional Demography, and Economic Growth: Family Planning in England Long Before the Fertility Decline," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 26(1), pages 45-80, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alessandra Gribaldo & Maya D. Judd & David I. Kertzer, 2009. "An Imperfect Contraceptive Society: Fertility and Contraception in Italy," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 35(3), pages 551-584, September.
    2. Hill Kulu & Paul J. Boyle & Gunnar Andersson, 2008. "High suburban fertility: evidence from four Northern European countries," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2008-021, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    3. Mahesh Karra & Joshua Wilde, 2024. "Economic Foundations of Contraceptive Transitions: Theories and a Review of the Evidence," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 50(S2), pages 539-569, December.
    4. Hill Kulu & Paul Boyle & Gunnar Andersson, 2009. "High Suburban Fertility: Evidence from Four Northern European Countries," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 21(31), pages 915-944.
    5. H. Kulu & P. J. Boyle, 2009. "High Fertility in City Suburbs: Compositional or Contextual Effects?," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 25(2), pages 157-174, May.
    6. Hilde Bras & Reto Schumacher, 2019. "Changing gender relations, declining fertility? An analysis of childbearing trajectories in 19th-century Netherlands," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(30), pages 873-912.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:39:y:2021:i:8:p:1725-1736. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.