Parenthood, altruism, and the market: a critique of essentialist constructions of women’s nature in commercial surrogacy

Commercial surrogacy has become an increasingly popular path to parenthood around the world. Yet, critics have raised concerns about the practice’s implications for gender inequality. This paper critically assesses commercial surrogacy’s reliance on, and reinforcement of, common narratives about women’s natural disposition to sacrifice themselves for others. These narratives have historically served to justify disadvantages for women as workers, both within and outside the household. Their presence in commercial surrogacy agreements suggests that, even if we can characterise commercial surrogacy as an alternative (as opposed to traditional) method for family formation, the same social stereotypes that have historically entrenched women’s inequality in traditional families are still highly relevant for the practice’s functioning.

Shifting Issues of Support Exchange Under 20-Year Implementation of Japanese Long-Term Care Insurance Program

Japan has faced numerous issues in the last twenty years with its mandatory long-term care (LTC) insurance program. This LTC insurance program obviously affected older adults’ informal support exchanges, reducing support from family and the community, which became more valuable, subjectively. Furthermore, changes in support have impacted older adults’ subjective well-being and children’s perceived care motivation. Additionally, a mandatory uniform system challenges the issue of tolerance of diversity, meaning how non-traditional families’ opinions be involved LTC situations. This symposium discusses unexpected shifting issues in Japan in the implementation of a public LTC program with a focus on older adults’ support exchanges. The first paper examines the long-term impacts of formal and informal support by examining the effects of implementing formal services. The second paper assesses a community’s role in relation to family in the presence of a public LTC program. The third paper examines the subjective impacts of older parents, who provided support to adult children and their reciprocal expectations of receiving LTC. The fourth paper, on the other hand, articulates reciprocal impacts on sons’ care motivation, which has become more important, since the introduction of the LTC program reinforced men’s participation in LTC. Finally, the fifth paper clarifies how a public uniform program accommodates informal support from non-traditional families when the program premises the presence of family in advanced care planning. Our findings have long-term implications for aging societies in relation to formal and informal support exchanges.

Transformations in Byzantine Society in the Eleventh Century, Particularly in Constantinople

The historiography of the last half-century has changed our vision of the Byzantine economy during the eleventh century. Urban growth, especially that of Constantinople, is better understood. Prosopography, which has been revivified with the information provided by seals, offers the best instrument of investigation. The civil and military aristocracies meshed together thanks to matrimonial alliances, and settled more systematically in Constantinople, where the highest functions were allocated by the crown. The emperors favoured civil servants, more numerous after the conquests of the tenth and early eleventh centuries. It is indisputable that novi homines, distinguished by their education, appeared within the circles of power, but the traditional families of the civil aristocracy joined by families formerly working for the army and now present in the civil administration still occupied the highest posts. The opening of the Senate does not seem to have concerned merchants and artisans, who, however, were not completely separated from the aristocracy. The ‘people of the agora’ were interested in governmental success, because they contributed, through massive investments in the purchase of dignities, to the intensification of monetary circulation. Under Alexios Komnenos, they were victims not of imperial hostility towards them, but of the bankruptcy of the financial system. At the same time, the number of civil servants was decreasing due to the shrinkage of imperial territory and to new forms of provincial government.

Intestinal Parasites, Anemia and Nutritional Status in Young Children from Transitioning Western Amazon

Young children are particularly vulnerable to the chronic sequelae of anemia, including poor nutritional status. The aim of this study was to assess intestinal parasitic-infections and nutritional status (anemia and linear growth) in preschool children living in contemporary Amazonian communities. A cross-sectional study measured children’s intestinal parasites and hair-Hg (HHg)—biomarkers of fish consumption, hemoglobin levels, and growth (anthropometric Z-scores). Children came from traditional-living families (Itapuã), and tin-mining settlements (Bom Futuro) representing current transitioning populations. It covered 937 pre-school children (from 1 to 59 months of age) from traditional (247) and immigrant tin-mining families (688). There was a high prevalence of intestinal polyparasitic-infection in children from both communities, but mild anemia (hemoglobin concentrations) and moderate (chronic) malnutrition were more frequent in children from traditional families than in children from tin-mining settlers. Children from traditional families ate significantly more fish (HHg mean of 4.3 µg/g) than children from tin-mining families (HHg mean of 2.3 µg/g). Among traditional villagers, children showed a significant correlation (r = 0.2318; p = 0.0005) between hemoglobin concentrations and HHg concentrations. High rates of parasitic infection underlie the poverty and attendant health issues of young children in the Brazilian Amazon. The intestinal parasite burden affecting poor Amazonian children resulting from unsafe water, lack of sanitation and poor hygiene is the most urgent environmental health issue.