Mervi Patosalmi, MA
Doctoral student, Gender Studies
Politics of Philosophy and Gender (PPhiG)
Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies
P.O. Box 59
FI-00014 University of Helsinki
FINLAND
tel: +358 9 191 23387
fax: +358 9 191 23315
Email: mervi.patosalmi@helsinki.fi
Research interests
Politics and Policies Targeting Reproductive Agency: Redescription
The theme of my doctoral dissertation is reproductive agency, which is examined by analysing recent debates about the need for a population policy in Finland. The theoretical starting point of the analysis is Drucilla Cornell’s thinking and especially her concept of the imaginary domain and novel way of understanding bodily integrity. Combining these ideas with Judith Butler’s thinking about performativity of gender and the relationship between materiality and language, I examine and develop a concept of reproductive agency. With the help of this concept, I redescribe Finnish discourses about population policies and the need to raise the birth rate in Finland in the 21st century. In addition, I will examine critically Cornell’s concepts and study possibilities and limits that the ideas of the imaginary domain and bodily integrity offer for critical study of gender and politics.