A critique of population control narratives reproduced by international development actors in the 21st century
Since the turn of the millennium, American media, scientists, and environmental activists have insisted that the global population crisis is -back--and that the only way to avoid catastrophic climate change is to ensure women-s universal access to contraception. Did the population problem ever disappear? What is bringing it back-and why now? In On Infertile Ground, Jade S. Sasser explores how a small network of international development actors, including private donors, NGO program managers, scientists, and youth advocates, is bringing population back to the center of public environmental debate. While these narratives never disappeared, Sasser argues, histories of human rights abuses, racism, and a conservative backlash against abortion in the 1980s drove them underground-until now.
Using interviews and case studies from a wide range of sites-from Silico
