Of care and commodities: breast milk and the new politics of mobile biosubstances

Boyer, Kate ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8356-4412 2009. Of care and commodities: breast milk and the new politics of mobile biosubstances. Progress in Human Geography 34 (1) , pp. 5-20. 10.1177/0309132509105003

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Abstract

Advances in lactation technology in recent years have changed the ontological status of breast milk, giving it new-found mobility. This paper considers the contested meanings over breast milk’s ‘proper place’ in US and UK society. By synthesizing scholarship from geography, gender studies and science and technology studies, I use the case of mobile breast milk to propose a new framework for how geographers might conceptualize mobile biosubstances. Drawing on the work of Waldby and Mitchell (2006), I suggest that the ways in which breast milk now travels reflect how mobile biosubstances increasingly function as a hybrid form, drawing together elements of both gift-exchanges and commodity-exchanges.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Geography and Planning (GEOPL)
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	0309-1325
Last Modified:	28 Oct 2022 08:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/72031

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