När barn måste födas: En governmentality-analys av Utredningen för en framtid med barn

Sammanfattning

In 2024, a historically low birth rate of 1,43 children per woman was documented in Sweden, which is the lowest figure since measurements began in 1751. The Tidö government has therefore appointed the state-inquiry Utredningen för en framtid med barn. In the state-inquiry, the declining birth rate is presented as an economic crisis whose solution is a return to a higher fertility rate. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between knowledge, power and governance in the state-inquiry. Our aim is to critically evaluate the inquiry and re-problematize their problematisations. Using a Foucauldian biopolitical approach we analyze the state-inquiry through a combination of a governmentality framework, social reproduction theory and gender and nation theory. We operationalize governance as consisting of rationalities and technologies. In the state-inquiry, we can therefore see how power operates by analyzing which rationalities and technologies are present. We find three distinct rationalities in the inquiry: an economic, a liberal and a nationalist rationality. The state thus constructs the declining birth rate as a problem for the individual, the economy and the nation in a pro-natalist rationality. This rationality operates to make women responsible for the biological reproduction of the population.