Main content

Commercial Surrogacy in India, Money

Laurie Taylor explores commercial surrogacy in India and beyond. Plus the changing nature of money in the post-crisis world.

Wombs for Sale: commercial surrogacy in India & beyond. Couples from all over the world can now hire Indian women to bear their children for a fraction of the cost of surrogacy elsewhere. Laurie Taylor talks to Amrita Pande, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Cape Town, and author of a detailed study into a burgeoning business which has little or no government regulation. She talked to surrogates, their families, clients, doctors and brokers to capture the full mechanics of a labour regime rooted in global gender & economic inequality. They're joined by Michal Nahman, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of the West of England, who has studied reproductive tourism.

Also, the transformation of money in the post crisis world. Nigel Dodd, Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, highlights the proliferation of new forms and systems of money, from local currencies and social lending to mobile money and Bitcoin. Why has our understanding of money failed to keep pace with these changes?

Producer: Jayne Egerton.

Available now

28 minutes

Amrita Pande

Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Cape Town

Find out more about

Wombs in Labor: Transnational Commercial Surrogacy in India
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN-10: 0231169914
ISBN-13: 978-0231169912

Michal Nahman

Senior Lecturer, Department of Health and Social Sciences, University of the West of England

Find out more about Dr

Extractions: An ethnography of reproductive tourism
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN-10: 0230319297
ISBN-13: 978-0230319295

Nigel Dodd

Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics

Find out more about

The Social Life of Money
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN-10: 0691141428
ISBN-13: 978-0691141428

Broadcasts

  • Wed 4 Mar 2015 16:00
  • Mon 9 Mar 2015 00:15

The Open University

Analysis and insights related to Thinking Allowed programmes.

Explore further with The Open University

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Thinking Allowed is produced in partnership with The Open University

Download this programme

Subscribe to this programme or download individual episodes.

Podcast