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Abstract

This dissertation provides a practitioner’s perspective on the role and contribution of engaged anthropology in the co-construction of population policies that are based on human rights and ethnographic evidence. It provides a critical assessment of the demographic imaginaries that fuel demographic policies in Eastern Europe, including a new generation of pronatalist population policies called demographic security. By bringing an anthropological perspective to demographic security policy and programmes as a site of reproductive governance, this dissertation shows how imagination and ideology, rather than purely technical considerations around demographic data, are central to the creation and construction of the “population crisis” in Eastern Europe. It highlights that the framing of population decline in Eastern Europe as a security threat has led to misaligned public policy responses and an environment conducive to ethno-nationalist agendas and the roll back of women’s and reproductive rights. Grounded in anthropological theory and research, it offers an insider-outsider perspective on how UNFPA, the main UN entity addressing population, is working with countries to help move from a narrow and ultimately futile focus on boosting fertility rates towards a more comprehensive approach that holistically addresses the underlying reasons so many people cannot realise their fertility intentions and feel compelled to leave their countries to look for better opportunities elsewhere

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