Populating the 1980s

The 1980s was a critical decade in world history. With the Cold War global order at its height, the decade witnessed new modes of population governance across the political spectrum, from China’s One Child Policy to Reagan’s Global Gag Rule, alongside fast-evolving reproductive technologies. Populating the 1980s delves into this transformative decade to offer fresh insights into the late-twentieth century world through the lens of population, and explores the economic, legal, political and religious implications for the relationship between individuals, kinship and the state.

In revisiting this remarkable decade, not only does this book identify what the reproductive politics were at that time, but highlights this period as a defining moment for reproductive freedom around the world. As the global political order was undergoing fundamental transformation, how did bio-politics and geo-politics become entangled? What does a history of the global population of the 1980s reveal about late modernity, individual freedom, family, sovereignty, gender, secularization and changing moral economies? This book addresses these themes and more to better understand the evolution of rights and justice for reproductive bodies across six continents during the 1980s, and explores how this decade laid the foundation for the myriad ethical, legal and social questions around reproductive politics today.