Emotional problems: policymaking and empathy through the lens of transnational motherhood

Paterson, Stephanie; Larios, Lindsay

doi:10.1080/19460171.2020.1752760

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The first limitation can be explained by viewing emotions as relating merely to specific spheres of life, mainly private or body-related matters (see examples in: Jupp et al, 2016;Orsini & Wiebe, 2014). While compassion, empathy, and assessment of emotional contexts within these spheres are understood to be important (Paterson & Larios, 2020), their inclusion in specific policy instruments and expert opinions is nevertheless seen as complicating action precisely because emotions are reserved for privacy, body and individual situations, and not for collective norms of behavior (see e.g., Durnová & Hejzlarová, 2017 for discussion). This is related to the more general view of emotions in policy sciences scholarship as producing overreactions (Maor, 2012) which then makes emotions working against rationalizing structures of expertise.…”

Section: Re-orienting the Role Of Emotions In Expertisementioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating the role of emotions in expertise: public framing of expertise in the Czech public controversy on birth care

Durnová

Hejzlarová

2022

Policy Sci

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Despite the abundant scholarship on sociopolitical embeddedness of expertise, its relation to emotions remains understudied. The paper fills this gap by discussing how public framings of expertise work against the inclusion of emotional contexts, affecting what kind of professional knowledge dominates in a public debate. The analysis of the Czech public debate on birth care shows that while midwives embrace emotional contexts of birthing and integrate them as an essential part of their professional expertise, obstetricians see these contexts as troubling their expertise. This professional difference is sustained by the public framing of expertise in the media, favoring obstetricians’ expertise over midwives’. The analysis shows that public framing of expertise outweighs evidential work done by midwives and legal advisors and impacts how emotional contexts are understood in the debate. Rather than referring to feelings and personal experience of the body, the “emotional” becomes a discursive label to delegitimize professional opinion. The results raise thus important questions about how the public framing of expertise impacts whether emotional context and experiences of bodily harm are seen as relevant in policy debates and policy regulations.

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Section: Re-orienting the Role Of Emotions In Expertisementioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating the role of emotions in expertise: public framing of expertise in the Czech public controversy on birth care

Durnová

Hejzlarová

2022

Policy Sci

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“…Similarly, Durnová (2013) argues that referring to emotions is not merely a recognition of psychosocial well-being but also a tool for governing the authoritative knowledge in a policy field (Durnová, 2013: 498). These works are part of the scholarship highlighting how emotions are subjected to public scrutiny with competing claims on their meaning (Paterson and Larios, 2020;Durnová, 2018b). In policy debates on birth care, such public scrutiny of emotions is closely linked to references to gender, used as discursive means to articulate professional hierarchies (Cavaghan, 2017).…”

Section: Understanding Care Policies Through Intimacymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The use of individual emotional experience in regulatory framings leading to policy recommendations has only been addressed marginally in policy scholarship (except for Paterson and Larios, 2020;and Durnova, 2013). Combining insights from feminist analyses of care with policy studies, this article hopefully opens a gateway to a better understanding of the process.…”

Section: Fundingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empowered or patronized? The role of emotions in policies and professional discourses on birth care

Durnová

Formánková

Hejzlarová

2021

Critical Social Policy

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While the focus on emotions has been associated with the rise of psychosocial welfare and has promised a gateway to accommodate individually diversified needs of citizens in policies, the article shows that the role of emotions needs to be better understood. Highlighting emotions can serve both to empower and to patronize those who experience them. Referring to emotions can thus strengthen hierarchies and downplay individual requests to initiate a change. The analysis of professional discourses on birth care in Czechia shows the value of contextualising emotions. While midwifery discourses apply the emotional context of birth to support women in their specific birth choices, medical discourses use the emotional context to patronize them and to limit their requirements. As a result, policy demands are seen as illegitimate when coming from midwives, who want to see women’s choices more respected in care. We analyse this dynamic through intimacy. As a conceptual framework used in sociology of care, ‘intimacy’ ties individual emotional experiences to collective discourses on care, the body and related feelings. Viewing professional discourses on birth care through intimacy reveals the role of emotions in the collective recognition of the personal struggle for the right to give birth in conditions that respect bodily and emotional integrity, which informs how we think of the role of emotions in policies in general.

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Caveats to Governing With Empathy

Fenley

2022

Public Integrity

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Emotional problems: policymaking and empathy through the lens of transnational motherhood

Cited by 8 publications

References 39 publications

Navigating the role of emotions in expertise: public framing of expertise in the Czech public controversy on birth care

Navigating the role of emotions in expertise: public framing of expertise in the Czech public controversy on birth care

Empowered or patronized? The role of emotions in policies and professional discourses on birth care

Caveats to Governing With Empathy

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