Description
- Abstract:
- While exceptionally high Palestinian fertility has been featured prominently in the academic literature and the news press, dramatic drops in fertility have been noted in the quasi-state building era, which was ushered in by the signing of the Oslo peace accords. In this dissertation, I examine fertility change during this period through a multilevel and mixed-methods examination that draws on a political-economic approach in Demography. Beginning with a secondary analysis of fertility trends, I show that the ongoing decline in fertility has mainly occurred through greater deliberate control of fertility, with the most marked change occurring between 2000 and 2006. This project addresses three specific questions: 1) How has the Palestinian Authority and its institutions engaged with issues of reproduction at a policy level? 2) How are reproductive and family planning services provided and how have state bureaucrats, and specifically health providers, addressed reproductive practices and service utilization? And 3) How are decisions about reproduction made at the household level in a context of changing social, economic, and political conditions? I argue that while the Palestinian Authority does not have an explicit population policy in place, a defacto policy focusing on the expansion of reproductive health service delivery and access along with an increasingly neoliberal turn in developmental policy has created an environment resulting in fertility decline. Furthermore, the expansion of health services, which promotes the use of family planning for spacing rather than limitation and in order to improve maternal and child health outcomes, has both increased access to and awareness of services. Through comparative ethnographic fieldwork in Hebron, Nablus, and Ramallah, I argue that the interactions between the political, economic, and social contexts are central to understanding reproductive aspirations and decisions. The increasingly neoliberal turn of the Palestinian Authority’s state-building project, which has included the pullback of public social safety nets, has increased the centrality of the family in social welfare provision. Conversely, new economic aspirations and increased strains on the local economy have further constrained families abilities to cope with new demands, thereby resulting in decisions to have fewer children and/or lengthening intervals between children.
- Notes:
- Thesis (Ph.D. -- Brown University (2016)
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Citation
Hammoudeh, Weeam S.,
"(RE)PRODUCING THE CITIZENRY: REPRODUCTION AND THE PALESTINIAN (QUASI) STATE-BUILDING PROJECT"
(2016).
Sociology Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0513WMX
