Understanding Family Change and Variation

Abstract

Over the past 40 years, a new social field has emerged in the United States: the field of infertility. This social field has a unique set of institutions, social positions, and norms; a plethora of fora for public engagement; and a unique lexicon. Its institutions include clinics and laboratories, financial institutions, legal specialties, adoption agencies, patients’ rights groups, and professional associations. The lexicon—and particularly the acronymns—also demarcates a domain of social space in which specialized modes of interaction apply. IVF, ICSI, hCG, tww, ttc, TESA 1 : use of these terms signals membership in a highly developed social field. And yet, it is a social field that did not exist in any form in 1960.