Irina Herb

Irina Herb analyses sociological processes of "doing property" in transnational economies of reproduction in the sub-project C02.

Irina Herb studied Sociology at the Georg-August University of Göttingen and International Relations at the University of Oxford. She worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Diversity Research (Göttingen) and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (Göttingen) and spend research visits at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Leipzig). Following her studies, she worked as a researcher at a think tank on environmental policies.

Irina Herb is interested in Marxist theories in the context of social reproduction, reproductive justice and reproductive technologies, racism and decoloniality, as well as socialist critiques, movements, family models and utopias.

 

A picture of Irina Herb.

Research project

Title: “Who Owns the Means of Reproduction and Commodification? The Political Economy of Assisted Reproductive Technologies“ (since 11/2022)

In her doctoral project, she concerns herself with Marxist-feminist perspectives on social reproduction, with a focus on reproductive technologies. Empirically, she examines the privatisation and financialisation of fertility clinics, as well as the question of how egg donors and recipients discursively grasp the commodification of body parts. Analytically, builds on and adds to social reproduction theory (SRT) around Tithi Bhattacharya and others.

Activities

Publications

Scientific publications
  • Graefe, S.; Herb, I.; Lettow, S. (eds.): Dimensions of Property in Reproductive Economies. Practices, Discourses, and Structures. Campus Verlag, (in preparation).
  • Herb, I.; Uhlmann, S. (2024): “Zum Widerspruch zwischen Akkumulation und der Reproduktion von Leben. Social Reproduction Theory als umfassende Analyse kapitalistischer Gesellschaften?”, In: PROKLA. Zeitschrift für Kritische Sozialwissenschaft 54(214), 11-31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v54i214.2107.
  • Herb, I.; Abdel-Fatah, D.; Chakraborty, D.; Edwards, G. (2023): "Nancy Fraser’s Cannibal Capitalism: An Extended Discussion“, In: Historical Materialism Bookreviews, https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/book-review/nancy-frasers-cannibal-capitalism-extended-discussion.
Media and podcasts

Lectures

Subprojects