Book launch: The Politics of Potential

What if adult diabetes risk was a function of nutrition in-utero? What would it mean for future prosperity if countries acted on the evidence that height at age two is predictive of future human capital?

In the last decade, the understanding that human health and development are profoundly shaped by early life environmental conditions has animated a global health focus on nutrition in the first 1000 days of life.

The Politics of Potential examines how new scientific understandings of the developmental origins of health and disease constitute new forms of intergenerational responsibility that are racialized and gendered, and how these overlook the everyday potentialities that shape perceptions of the future in South Africa.

This book event will feature a short presentation by the author Dr Michelle Pentecost, followed by responses from Professor Sarah Hodges and Dr Rishita Nandagiri, and a discussion chaired by Dr Lucy van de Wiel, followed by lunch. Guests will also be able to purchase a signed copy of the book during the event.

This event is hosted by the Reproduction Research Cluster in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.