In many countries that have recently gone through political transitions—from Eastern Europe to Africa and Latin America—nationalism has re-emerged as a powerful force. This revival reaches deeply into everyday life, shaping ideas about family, sexuality, and reproduction. Reproductive rights, once seen as part of the democratic promise, are often the first to be restricted. Political pressure, cultural stigma, and weak health systems keep access limited, even where laws are formally liberal. Nationalist politics cast women’s and minorities’ rights as threats to the nation’s survival, tying them to fears of migration, low birth rates, or religious tradition. At the same time, human rights language—once the hallmark of pro-democracy movements—is now contested: it is used both by those seeking to expand freedoms and by those determined to constrain them. Marta Bucholc argues that these conflicts converge around three forms of justice: transitional justice, which deals with the legacies of authoritarianism; reproductive justice, which links reproductive rights to broader inequalities; and historical justice, which mobilizes the past to shape present debates. Their collision in the processes of political transition shows why reproductive rights are not a side issue, but a central arena where the future of democracy and equality is being decided.
Marta Bucholc is professor of sociology at the University of Warsaw, associate researcher at the Centre de recherche en science politique of the UCLouvain, and visiting professor at the University College Dublin. She earned her PhD in 2006 and habilitation in 2014, holding additional degrees in philosophy and law. She is Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator project Abortion Figurations (2022–2027), as well as Polish PI of the Volkswagen Foundation project Towards Illiberal Constitutionalism and PI of the Poland’s National Science Centre project on national habitus in post-1989 Poland. Her research spans sociological theory, socio-legal studies, human rights, and the sociology of knowledge.
Ludger Hagedorn, IWM Permanent Fellow, will moderate the lecture and the Q&A session.
