Scientific motherhood, responsibility, and hope: Umbilical cord blood banking in South Korea

Abstract

This paper explores how concepts of hope, motherhood, responsibility, and science are mobilized and transformed in the marketing strategies of private cord blood banks in South Korea. Cord blood banking provides a useful case study of the "political economy of hope," which emphasizes future expectations over current utility. In particular, appeals to hope are rendered natural as being applied in relation to various concepts of motherhood (e.g. "scientific motherhood" and "consumer motherhood"), thereby refiguring ideas of a mother's responsibility to her child. In South Korea, cord blood banks rely heavily on the discourse of "scientific motherhood," which is based on certain gender norms and ideas about science, modernity, and "advanced society." By exploring the discourse of scientific motherhood, this study reexamines the "political economy of hope" through the lenses of gender and transnationalism.