Any serious look at the realities of female genital mutilation in modern Britain cannot be complete without an attempt at sociological analysis in parallel with empirical description and policy discussion.
FGM is a social and economic force as well as a fundamental issue around human rights and the imperative on us all to keep the most vulnerable and smallest members of our society safe.
It is important to consider how sociological and economic analysis can contribute to understandings of what FGM means in a modern, historically fully established Western society such as, but not exclusively, the nations of Europe, North America and Australia.
Sociology throws light on how FGM sits in the social order, and what its impacts for that order might be, overall and directly for those who experience it (whether at first hand or in other ways). Economics helps in considering the implications of FGM for the economies of communities and societies in which it is found.
TOPICS CONSIDERED in Chapter 2 of the book Eradicating Female Genital Mutilation:
The sociology of FGM
anomie and social frameworks Discuss
secret societies Discuss
group think Discuss
prospects in the new world Discuss
fundamental tensions Discuss
from anomie to underclass Discuss
power Discuss
first-world contexts Discuss
patriarchy Discuss
racism Discuss
survivors and survival mechanisms Discuss
The economics of FGM
local economics Discuss
human and health costs Discuss
infant harm Discuss
medicalisation Discuss
employment and enterprise Discuss
land and other non-monetary resources Discuss
the ‘shanty town’ effect Discuss
medical and other service provision costs Discuss
communities in the diaspora Discuss
international programmes Discuss
half the workforce, half the leadership Discuss
opportunity costs Discuss
* Any other issues concerning socio-economic analysis? Discuss
Eradicating Female Genital Mutilation 