Flux

Time is central to assisted reproductive technologies (ART): protocols must synchronise with bodily rhythms, treatment schedules unfold over months, sometimes racing against declining reproductive capacities and age. In France, the 2021 expansion of donor conception access to lesbian couples and single women led to a dramatic increase in demand–inseminations with donor sperm rose 4.3-fold between 2021 and 2024–, which was not met by proportional increases in funding or staffing. Consequently, wait times for donor gametes have also increased dramatically, reaching an average of 1.5 years for spermatozoa and 2 years for eggs in 2025. Time remains, therefore, of the essence in ART in France. This paper will focus on “glitches”– delays, cancellations, difficulties to organise appointments–through an ethnographic study (June 2025-May 2026) of the gamete donor recruitment process in 5 French public ART centres. I will reflect on my own experience of time during observations and interviews with the various practitioners involved (biologists, gynaecologists, psychologists, genetic counsellors). I will also analyse paradoxical discourses, such as professionals demanding time to properly assess a donor candidate’s profile, while expressing frustrations when colleagues in other departments take time to complete their tasks. This will allow for a discussion on how time reveals broader tensions in the organisation of third-party reproduction, particularly in the daily realities faced by fertility professionals navigating the French bioethical framework for third-party reproduction, as well as the challenges of public hospital administration.

Social interactions and daily mobility are two behaviors that mutually transform throughout life. Understanding how they interact is particularly important for elderly people, who are more at risk to be spatially and socially isolated. From data collected among a sample of 225 people aged 60 and over living in the Paris region (France), we explore how their social interactions are embedded into their activity space using the new concept of “sociability space” (the geographical portion of the activity space consisting of places visited with social network member). Sociability places are found to less numerous, less diversified, more spatially dispersed and more decentered from residence than non-sociability places. Regarding traditional social network measures (degree, global clustering, etc.), stronger and more numerous correlations are observed with the structural characteristics of sociability spaces than with non-sociability spaces. Finally, variations in structural characteristics of sociability spaces according to people’s socio-demographic and residential profiles largely differ from those observed in structural characteristics of non-sociability spaces. This empirical study shows that “sociability space” indicators are complementary to social network indicators and provide a more precise picture of geography of social interactions than activity space considered as a whole. Such approach may help to identify particular groups at risk of social isolation, such as people living alone and those with a low level of education, and inspire public policies aiming at both promoting daily mobility and reducing social isolation.

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For decades, third-party reproduction was shrouded in secrecy, and gamete donation was anonymous in most countries. This situation was however challenged by the increased attention to the harmful effects of family secrets and by the claims of donor-conceived people seeking access to their origins. The rise of direct-to-consumer (DTC) DNA testing further transformed the landscape of donor conception, leading some individuals to unexpectedly discover their donor conception, and others to bypass anonymity rules. In the social sciences, origins have sparked new questions, shedding light on the meanings attributed to procreation and relatedness. The search for origins has been analysed either as reinforcing essentialist views of kinship and identity or as part of a relational, temporal and narrative process. Yet, little is known about how donor-conceived people actually navigate this search. Drawing on an ethnographic study with French and English sperm donor-conceived adults, this chapter examines how they use DTC DNA testing to explore their origins. It documents their investigative methods and interpretative techniques, and highlights both the insights and the limitation of DNA and the epistemological framework employed by genetic genealogy websites to produce knowledge about origins in donor conception.

Objectif : dans un contexte de sur-hospitalisation des personnes en situation d'obésité et en surpoids lors de l'épidémie de COVID-19, une équipe pluridisciplinaire a tenté de comprendre quels étaient les impacts des confinements et des couvre-feux sur les patient.es pris en charge dans les centres spécialisés obésité (CSO) en Nouvelle-Aquitaine (France). Méthode : cette étude épouse une méthodologie mixte (qualitative et quantitative). Résultats : elle démontre des ruptures dans les trajectoires de santé des patient.es et traduit statistiquement les expériences spécifiques à cette population. Conclusion : elle offre un regard analytique sur les soins en bariatrie ainsi que sur l'instant COVID.

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