Social Reproduction and Depletion

Social reproduction is not costless. When unrecognised, valorised but not valued, social reproduction leads to depletion of those who care. Building on the arguments of feminist international political economists, I examine the importance of taking the work of care seriously. Depletion through social reproduction occurs when resources for social reproduction fall below a threshold of sustainability over time. To know the intensity and extensity of depletion allows us to reveal not only the distress – physical, emotional/mental and social - but also to strategise towards reversing depletion

The Good Life and the Bad: The Dialectics of Solidarity

This essay asks four questions about the good life. First, what place has recognition of exclusion in the politics of redistribution? Second, can we imagine a public good life without also paying attention to the private and how does the private leach into the public imagination of a good life? Third, what obligations of justice are necessary to ensure our shared good lives? Finally, can we imagine new ways of thinking about resistance and change through alliances of the excluded? I argue that the imagination of a good life needs to be contextual, it is gendered and it is solidaristic

Deliberative democracy and the politics of redistribution: the case of the Indian Panchayats

By examining evidence from India, where quotas for women in local government were introduced in 1993, this article argues that institutional reform can disturb hegemonic discourses sufficiently to open a window of opportunity where deliberative democratic norms take root and where, in addition to the politics of recognition, the politics of redistribution also operates

Feminist everyday political economy: Space, time, and violence

It goes without saying that feminist International Political Economy (IPE) is concerned in one way or another with the everyday – conceptualised as both a site of political struggle and a site within which social relations are (re)produced and governed. Given the longstanding grounding of feminist research in everyday gendered experiences, many would ask: Why do we need an explicit feminist theorisation of the everyday? After all, notions of everyday life and everyday political struggle infuse feminist analysis. This article seeks to interrogate the concept of the everyday – questioning prevalent understandings of the everyday and asking whether there is analytical and conceptual utility to be gained in articulating a specifically feminist understanding of it. We argue that a feminist political economy of the everyday can be developed in ways that push theorisations of social reproduction in new directions. We suggest that one way to do this is through the recognition that social reproduction is the everyday alongside a three-part theorisation of space, time, and violence (STV). It is an approach that we feel can play an important role in keeping IPE honest – that is, one that recognises how important gendered structures of everyday power and agency are to the conduct of everyday life within global capitalism

Recognising the full costs of care? The Gendered Politics of Compensation for families in South Africa’s silicosis class action

This article concerns recognition and compensation of the intimate, gendered work of caring by family members for workers who became ill with lung diseases as a result of poor labour conditions in the mines in South Africa. It focuses on a recent decision by a court in South Africa (Nkala and Others v. Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited and Others, 2016) that took the unusual step of acknowledging this care work and attempting to compensate it indirectly. The article combines insights from political economy and law within a feminist frame to develop an argument about compensation for social reproductive work to address the harm experienced by the carers of mineworkers. Using the theory of depletion through social reproduction, it suggests ways of understanding the costs of care in order to fully compensate the harms suffered by the carers. This is done with reference to a photographic essay by Thom Pierce called ‘The Price of Gold’ taken in the mineworkers’ homes after their discharge from work due to illness. The article argues that ideas of depletion should inform any consideration of compensation of people engaged in caring in a range of reparatory contexts

Introduction to the themed section : law, harm and depletion through social reproduction

In this article, we outline an interdisciplinary exploration into the invisibilisation of social reproduction, most of which still continues to be done by women. In this introduction and themed section, we argue that the neglect of social reproduction has material costs for those responsible for it, which we theorise as ‘depletion through social reproduction’ (Rai et al, 2014) – and these costs are gendered. As a facet of governing processes, the law is important here. In this themed section, we examine the issue of law, harm and depletion through social reproduction to show how different strategies are already being used by individuals, households and communities to mitigate depletion and how this is being addressed (or not) at the policy and legal levels – local, national and international. To explore this issue, we have brought together sociologists, political economists and lawyers to develop insights that can be of value to political scientists and to the policy community

Introduction to the themed section: Law, harm and depletion through social reproduction

In this article, we outline an interdisciplinary exploration into the invisibilisation of social reproduction, most of which still continues to be done by women. In this introduction and themed section, we argue that the neglect of social reproduction has material costs for those responsible for it, which we theorise as ‘depletion through social reproduction’ (Rai et al, 2014) – and these costs are gendered. As a facet of governing processes, the law is important here. In this themed section, we examine the issue of law, harm and depletion through social reproduction to show how different strategies are already being used by individuals, households and communities to mitigate depletion and how this is being addressed (or not) at the policy and legal levels – local, national and international. To explore this issue, we have brought together sociologists, political economists and lawyers to develop insights that can be of value to political scientists and to the policy community

Remedying depletion through social reproduction – a critical engagement with the UN’s Business and Human Rights framework

The growing recognition of unpaid work in international law and the Sustainable Development Goals acknowledges that gendered labour supports the global economy. This work can have harmful impacts, leading to ‘depletion through social reproduction’ (). When corporate harms impact on workers and communities, family members are often required to provide caring labour for those directly affected. However, the consequential harms of depletion are generally invisible within the law and uncompensated. In assessing the United Nations’ business and human rights framework, we argue that the international legal regime must take account of social reproductive work and its consequent harms

SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth – A gendered analysis

SDG 8 calls for promoting ‘sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all’. Even as it highlights the importance of labour rights for all, it also makes visible some significant tensions. We note, for example, that despite many critiques of narrow economic measures of growth, the focus here remains on GDP and per capita growth. This is problematic, we argue, because the GDP productive boundary excludes much of social reproductive work. This puts SDG8 in tension with SDG 5 which calls for the recognition of the value of unpaid care and domestic work. There has been a significant increase in the rate of working women in the formal and informal sector. However, there has not been a subsequent gender shift in the doing of social reproductive work. In this paper we argue SDG 8’s focus on decent work and economic growth is inadequate; that productive employment and decent work for all men and women by 2030 needs to take into account the value and costs of social reproduction. We trace key historical debates on work to argue that both gender and labour rights have to underpin SDG 8 if its promise of inclusive, sustainable and decent work is to be realized

Depletion, intersectionality and the limits of social policy: child carers in Mexico City

This article makes a dual contribution. First, it adds an intersectional perspective to studies of depletion through social reproduction, examining the depletion experienced by children and adolescents caring for their younger siblings in Mexico City. The depletion that child carers experience is shaped by age, low income, other forms of work in and outside the home, and gender. Second, we explore the limitations of cash transfer welfare programmes by examining their failure to address the needs of children who provide care within the family and show how misperceptions by social policymakers of the experiences of young carers limit the capacity of social policies to make a difference to their well-being. The article underlines the importance of the greater recognition of social reproductive work by poor children and adolescents, and of the intersectional depletion that they experience, both within social policy and in academic research