The politics of reproductive governance: Women’s bodies and biopower in Thailand

Across two centuries, the politics of reproduction in Thailand has continually bound women’s bodies to projects of moral virtue, economic development, and state power. This paper traces five modalities of reproductive governance—civilized, productive, developmental, moral, and market wombs—to analyze how Thai women’s reproductive capacities have been managed, valued, and contested. Drawing on historical and ethnographic sources, the article argues that these modalities are not discrete or sequential stages but overlapping formations of what can be called the material–moral nexus: the tension between economic rationalities and moral imperatives that shape reproductive governance. By situating contemporary reproductive politics within a long historical arc, the article contributes to feminist theories of biopolitics and reproductive governance, showing how Thailand’s distinctive interplay of moral discourse, state control, and market forces continues to define women’s reproductive citizenship.