Power relations in commercial development in Mexico. An interdisciplinary analysis using digital ethnography

Abstract

Surrogacy, established in Mexico since 1997 as part of the international reproductive market, found in digital environments a relevant setting for its promotion and interaction with various actors, especially due to its intensified use during the COVID-19 lockdown. This study explored the meanings that gestating women constructed in two digital spaces during part of that period. Through digital ethnography and non-participant observation, the following topics were analyzed: typology of gestating women, mutual support in adverse circumstances, discourses focused on being-for-others, and underlying power relations. The interpretation of the data, based on Foucault and Bourdieu’s theorizing on power and feminist epistemology, revealed that these processes impose physical and emotional norms that prioritize those who demand the practice over the well-being of pregnant women. It is therefore, suggested, that emerging digital meanings normalize relationships of subordination that persist over time and may possibly be reproduced in offline environments. Finally, the analysis is an interdisciplinary approach between sociology and feminist theory that contributes to the international literature on the potential of digital ethnography as a method for understanding the formation of meaning even in adverse contexts.