Navigating in the Ocean of Risk

Risk is a central imaginary for the organization of social life in late capitalism. Based on a year of ethnographic research in obstetrics clinics and genetics laboratories in Istanbul Turkey this work explores the meanings feelings and politics of risk in the course of prenatal diagnosis. How does prenatal diagnosis transform the experiences of pregnancy childbirth and parenthood? How do secular middle-class Turkish women and their spouses strategically employ negotiate subvert or resist different discourses of risk? How do doctors pregnant women and their families voice different desires fears and identity claims as they talk about risk? By answering these questions this work seeks to contribute to our understanding of the implications of genetic testing for gender risk society governmentality and modernity.