Beyond reflection: Diffractive and intra-active interventions in health knowledge

Area of Science:

• Feminist theory
• New materialism
• Reproductive health studies

Background:

• Feminist frameworks have interrogated reproductive health knowledge production and contestation.
• The Women's Health Movement's history highlights limitations of representationalist epistemologies in challenging biomedical dominance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically revisit feminist theoretical frameworks in reproductive health.
• To explore the potential of diffractive, new materialist methodologies in this field.
• To argue for a diffractive, agential realist approach to understanding health knowledge.

Main Methods:

• Critical analysis of feminist theoretical frameworks.
• Exploration of Haraway's 'virtual speculum' and Barad's 'agential realism'.
• Application of new materialist concepts to reproductive health mediation.

Main Results:

• Representationalist epistemologies may not fully disrupt dominant biomedical logics.
• Diffractive, new materialist methodologies offer alternative ways to engage with reproductive health.
• Agential realism decenters human agency, foregrounding entangled processes.

Conclusions:

• A diffractive, agential realist approach is valuable for analyzing reproductive health.
• This approach highlights the co-constitution of knowledge and health.
• It emphasizes the complex, entangled processes involved in health enactment.