Irene Maffi

Fields | Projects and contracts | Collaborations | Events

Research directions

Cross-border reproductive care in the Maghreb region: an emerginc reproscape?

Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) remains an undocumented phenomenon in North Africa even though clinics for reproductive medicine have emerged in the region since the 1980s. In Tunisia in particular, the private healthcare system has been growing and notably the facilities offering ART services over the last ten years (Belhassen, 2018; Ghorbal, 2016). Intrinsically linked to the increase of patients coming from the Maghreb region and Sub-Saharan countries (Rouland, 2018; Lautier, 2013, 2005), the study of cross-border reproductive care (CBCR) in Tunisia offers an original approach for observing emerging processes triggered by intra-regional and transnational reproductive health mobilities in a South-South perspective. With this proposal, we aim not only to develop a study at the intersection of multiple current social sciences debates (especially regarding the -bio and -mobility paradigms) but
also to contextualize those debates in the North African region.
Within the framework of the "Seed Money for Cooperation with Mediterranean countries" commissioned by the HES-
SO as the Leading House (LH) for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), our project is characterised by three
aspects: 1) the pioneering character of the topic of CBRC in the Maghreb region and its heuristic scientific value; 2)
the creation of a research network working on medical issues from both sides of the Mediterranean basin and 3) the
pragmatic contribution of the research for policy makers in light of a lack of data.

Building Intrapartum Research Through Health (BIRTH)

January 2015 - December 2019, member of the European Action - COST Building Intrapartum Research Through Health (BIRTH). An interdisciplinary whole system approach to understanding and contextualising physiological labour and birth.

The main objective of the Action is to improve the wellbeing of women, babies and families, and the economic sustainability of maternity services in Europe, through advancing scientific knowledge about the normal physiology of labour and birth for populations and individuals in diverse social, political, and health care contexts.

Parents' experiences of surgical birth: a socio-anthropological study of C-section culture in Switzerland

Switzerland ranks among the European countries with the highest rates of surgical births (32.3%), well over the 10% to 15% recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2013, the Federal Office of Public Health published a report emphasising the lack of available data regarding national-level C-section rates and concluding that a full range of factors - biomedical but also demographic, socioeconomic and legal - are at the origin of the current prevalence of surgical births.
This project's intent is to investigate the Swiss 'culture of C-section', with a focus on parents' expectations and experiences during the post-partum period and beyond. The existing socio-anthropological literature is scant and rarely considers the operation's long-term influence on mothers' physical and mental health, fathers' experience or family life. This project's aim is to fill this gap by offering anthropological insights, coupled with a gender perspective, on women's and couples' experiences of C-sections, especially during the post-partum period. It analyses how a C-section shapes parental experiences of birth, roles and responsibilities within the couple and the family as well as their intimacy. It also investigates the clinical encounter's impacts on the relationship between parents and health professionals, in that the latter convey crucial information influencing couples' representations of childbirth as well as how the media and Internet shape the culture of childbirth. This project includes six research axes: (1) the experiences of Swiss and immigrant women and men of C-sections and the post-partum period, focusing on their specificities; (2) the impacts of the introduction of 'gentle' C-section in Switzerland; (3) the emergence of new therapeutic practices to heal the somatic and mental disorders caused by surgical birth for women; (4) the opposition between the 'natural birth' and 'technocratic birth' models in the couples' perception of C-section; (5) how parents and clinicians comprehend vaginal birth after caesare

Cross-border reproductive care in the Maghreb region: an emerginc reproscape?

Giving birth at CHUV. The experience of couples from childbirth classes to their return back home

June 2011-June 2013, fieldwork research at the Department of obstetrics and gynaecology of the University Hospital of the Canton of Vaud (CHUV) in Switzerland. The research project intends to study the experience of parents who give birth in the mentioned institution, focusing on their itinerary from childbirth classes to the end of their hospital stay. The main topics the research intends to treat are the following:
- The narratives and emotional experience of the (prospective) parents throughout their itinerary within the hospital
- The narratives of birth attendants -midwives and obstetricians gynaecologists
- The influence of the institutional organisation of care on the quality of the actors' experience -including birth attendants and parents
- The impact of dominant cultural representations on behaviours and attitudes among birth attendants and parents
- The effects of childbirth classes on parents' behaviours and attitudes during the delivery and towards breastfeeding

Political determinants of sexual & reproductive health

Development actors have increasingly recognised the importance of the political determinants of health. One way in which politics and power dynamics impact health is through the use of criminal law. The project provides insights into the causes and effects of criminalisation of abortion and same sex relations, which is widespread in low and middle income countries, and has significant detrimental effects on mental health, maternal mortality; the health of women and LGBTs, and HIV transmission. The project investigates health effects of criminalizing sexual and reproductive behaviour and health services, and analyses the political dynamics that drive, hamper and shape the uses of such criminal law in nine African countries, including both predominantly Christian Sub Saharan countries (Uganda, Malawi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa) and North African Muslim countries (Sudan and Tunisia). Within each group there are countries with a long tradition of abortion on demand as well as countries where it is strictly criminalized - and on homosexuality the cases range from Mozambique, where same-sex relations were legalized in 2007 to legal provisions for the death penalty in Sudan.

Contraception and voluntary abortion in Tunisia: moral policies and medical practices after the Revolution

August 2013- July 2014, I have conducted fieldwork in Tunisia on the policies of state and medical institutions and women's attitudes towards contraception and abortion for non-medical reasons after the Revolution of 2011. The research, whose title is Contraception and voluntary abortion in Tunisia: moral policies and medical practices after the Revolution, has taken place in national family planning centres and at the family planning unit of Wasila Bourguiba Maternity in Tunis with the official authorisation respectively of the Ministry of Public Health and the Office national de la famille et de la population. The interest of this study is based on the deep sociocultural transformations elicited by the victory of the islamist political party al-nahda, in the elections of October 2011. Conservative and religious values silenced after Independence have emerged contributing to subvert previously normalised practices in the domain of sexual and reproductive health. This research has focused on:
- The history of contraception and abortion discourses and practices in the post-colonial period
- The typology and availability of abortion and contraception services in the private and public sectors
- The daily interactions between female patients seeking the above mentioned services and medical and paramedical personnel
- The narratives of female patients and health care practitioners about contraception and abortion
- The State general policies in the domain of sexual and reproductive health and the effective practices in this field in the public sector
- The moral and political economy of contraception and abortion in the post-revolutionary period

Fostering pluralistic memories and collective resilience in fragile transitional justice processes

January 2014-December 2016 (with an already planned three-year extension), co-applicant with Guy Elcheroth (UNIL, main applicant), Ramila Usoof-Thowfeek (University of Peradeniya, co-applicant), Leonidas Ndayisaba (University of Burundi, co-applicant), Sonia Nimr (University of Bir Zeit, co-applicant) of the r4d Fostering pluralistic memories and collective resilience in fragile transitional justice processes (400240_146955), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss International Cooperation Agency (1.553.197 CHF).
The project aims to study the processes of collective remembering in the context of three fragile societies that have been involved in repeated rounds of communal violence over decades, in Sri Lanka, Burundi, and the Palestinian territories. It is based on the idea that open expression and circulation of diverse memories of conflicts can foster political tolerance and make communities more resilient when faced with critical events, such as violent incidents or political provocations, which are otherwise likely to undermine or disrupt peace processes. The implementation of this approach will be achieved through interdisciplinary scientific collaborations, combining ethnographic methods of data collection and purposive sampling procedures to collect testimonies, with standardized methods of survey data collection and probability sampling procedures. To develop an approach that is likely to be applicable to various fragile transitional justice processes, the program will be implemented and assessed in three different contexts that are all characterized by specific circumstances that render classic procedures of public truth-telling problematic. Derived from a theoretical model of social change, our intervention strategy focuses on breaking cycles of ignorance regarding other people's memories and on empowerment of critical minorities, across three different sectors of society: academics, local social referents, and media actors.

Lactation in History: a crosscultural research on suckling practices, representations of breastfeeding and politics of maternity in a European context

October 2013-September 2016, I am co-applicant together with my colleagues Yasmina Foehr-Janssens (University of Geneva, main applicant), Daniela Solfaroli Camillocci (Maison de l'histoire, Geneva, co-applicant) and Véronique Dasen (University of Fribourg, co-applicant) in the Sinergia project Lactation in History: a crosscultural research on suckling practices, representations of breastfeeding and politics of maternity in a European context (CRSII1_147699), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (1.500.000 CHF).

This project aims to investigate lactation as a complex historical and bio-cultural reality, engendering social and symbolic constructions. It explores how suckling developed and evolved in discourses, representations and practices, from Antiquity to the present day. The positive and negative meanings, assigned to different connections between breastfeeding and different types of maternity, are to be found at the core of religious, artistic, educational, medical and political discourses in particular cultural contexts. A team of specialists from the fields of anthropology, archaeology, literature, history, medical history, history of religion and art history has been put into motion in order to reconsider, collectively, issues pertaining to the social and the cultural setting of lactation and breastfeeding through time. Four interconnected projects have been set up, each bringing together specific expertise and covering a particular field in history.

Practices and discourses of childbirth in Jordan

- The natal system before the colonial time
- The role of the dayya (traditional birth attendant)
- The medicalization of pregnancy and birth during the colonial period and the cinseuqent westernization of the local natal system
- The role of traditional midwives in the ancient natal system
- The role of qualified midwives in the contemporary medical system
- The power relationships in the maternity wards among physicians, midwives and women giving birth
- The role of women during the birth process
- The narratives of women's experience of pregnancy and birth
- The differences between State's medical system and private medical sector in the managing of pregnancy and birth
- The role attributed to prenatal care by Jordanian women of different social level
- Knowledge and attitudes of Jordanian women towards pregnancy and birth according to their social status
- The influence of international organizations and local and international NGOs in shaping the local notions of pregnancy and birth
- The effects of the introduction of western notions such as "reproductive health" among Jordanian women
- The policies of the post-colonial State in the domain of reproductive health
- The State's policies of birth control and their acceptance by the Jordanian women
- Islamic reactions towards the medicalization of the natal system and the introduction of western notions about pregnancy and birth
- The transformations of family structures generated by the new management of pregnancy and birth
- The social role of women in the process of procreation and reproduction
- The relations between sexuality and procreation among Jordanian women
- The perception of the body during

The emergence of an actor in the public space. A comparative approach to the Islamic field in Switzerland

Within the framework of the Swiss PNR58 « Religion State and Society », co-applicant in the FNS project (Swiss National Science Foundation) on Islam in Switzerland together with Mounia Bennani-Chraïbi, Associated Professor at the Institute of political and international studies at the University of Lausanne. The project The emergence of an actor in the public space. A comparative approach to the structure of the Islamic field in Switzerland (L'émergence d'un acteur dans l'espace public. Une approche comparative de la structuration du champ islamique en Suisse) will be funded for the period 2007-2010 (350'998 CHF).
The main topics of the project are the following:
- The analysis of competition and alliance among the Islamic actors in Switzerlarnd
- The nature of their interactions with the State authorities at both the cantonal and the federal level.
- Public perceptions of controversies emerging in the media concerning the actors of Islam in Switzerland
- The transnational dimension characterizing the above-mentioned actors

Childbirth Cultures, concerns and consequences, iReserach4birth: iR4B

February 2013 - May 2014, I joined the already existing European Action - COST in the programme Childbirth Cultures, concerns and consequences, iReserach4birth: iR4B http://www.iresearch4birth.eu/iResearch4Birth/. I have been member of Working Group 1: "Organisational system design".

The main objective of the Action is to advance scientific knowledge about ways of improving maternity care provision and outcomes for mothers, babies and families across Europe by understanding what works, for who, in what circumstances , and by identifying and learning from the best.

Processes of cultural heritage formation and national identity building in the context of the Near East

General themes:
- The social itineraries of material objects and the metamorphosis of meaning and function they undergo during their existence
- The history of museographic practices in the Euro-American cultural tradition and in non western societies
- The issue of cultural objects repatriation
- The processes of collective memory construction
- The relations between history, memory and tradition
- History teaching in the school
- The social construction of borders, political and cultural, internal and external

Specific themes related to the context of my fieldwork in Jordan:
- The practices of cultural heritage related to the processes of nation building and the construction of ethnic identities in the context of the Near East
- The formation of private collections in Jordan and the Palestinian territories
- The birth and development of museographic practices in the Arab world
- The history of Near Eastern archaeology since the end of the ottoman era
- Political and cultural practices related to the definition of cultural heritage during colonial time
- The process of definition of ethnic minorities in Jordan
- The relationships between the Jordanian post-colonial State and "civil society"
- The dialogue between the State and private collectors in Jordan
- The connections between neo-tribal logics and the State in Jordan
- The transformations of the Palestinian collective memory among the diaspora in Jordan
- The relations between private collections and autobiographies among Palestinian living in Jordan

Other Modernities: Patrimony and Practices of Visual Expression Outside the West

February 2013 - January 2016, I am co-ordinating with Wendy Shaw (University of Bern, co-applicant) and Silvia Naef (University of Geneva, main applicant) the Sinergia project Other Modernities: Patrimony and Practices of Visual Expression Outside the West (CRSII1_141909), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (1.333.605 CHF), http://www.other-modernities.com.
1. Project Summary
Bringing together specialists in the fields of Anthropology, Middle Eastern Studies, and Art History, this project considers the historiography of arts in the non-West as part of worldwide processes of modernization. Rather than conceiving of the non-Western present against the backdrop of supposedly authentic, homogenous, and undiluted traditions, this project focuses on the historiographic construction of art and visual culture as intertwined agents and expressions of sociopolitical modernization. It proposes art and performance as parallel arenas through which cultural identity comes to be perceived neither as a search for roots nor a striving for Westernization, but as a process of coming-into-being within a framework of shifting cultural and political hegemonies.
The notion of modernity as phenomenon that destroys the present in order to build a new future -- a tabula rasa phenomenon completely opposed to tradition - is particularly complicated in the case of non-Western settings. Whereas in the West, where the conceptualization of 'the modern' as a post- Enlightenment project of utopian rationality responded against existing traditions, sublimating them into new forms, elsewhere modernization was often understood as erasing local culture in favor of a template borrowed from the West. For example, in much of the Arab world of the early twentieth century, the word ruwwad, pioneers, was used to designate modern artists, as if they were acting in a barren desert rather than in an already rich and vital cultural context. Historiographies of non-Western arts have often followed such a model, viewing artistic production as a bel

Epistemological issues

- The epistemological and rhetorical categories used in the anthropological works
- The common places or topoi typical of the ethnographic description
- The representation of time and space
- The ethnographic encounter
- The relation between the ethnographer's knowledge and that of his/her informants
- The epistemological and political stakes of fieldwork with a specific attention for the Arab world