Feminist global political economies of work and social reproduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed the relevance of social reproduction as a key analytical lens to interrogate contemporary capitalist processes. Building on insights from distinct theoretical traditions, in this introductory contribution to the special issue in Feminist Global Political Economies of Work we propose social reproduction as a prism to examine labour and work in the Global South from a feminist standpoint. We develop a social reproduction-centred methodology to the study of labour processes and relations, based on combined insights from Feminist IPE (FIPE), Feminist Economics (FE), and Feminist Political Economy of Development (FPED). Insights from these three disciplinary frontiers of feminist work are well-equipped to analyse the complexities of labouring in the Global South and how reproductive dynamics co-constitute the 'everyday' in the global economy in manifold ways. These include relations with the state and ('crisis' of) care provisions; the blending of productive and reproductive temporalities of work across labour processes; the continuum of paid/unpaid work within and beyond the household; and novel global processes of commodification of life and the everyday. In setting the contours of this ambitious agenda, we reflects on the complexity of feminist research methods; on positionality and ethics.

Automated summary

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of social reproduction as an analytical lens for understanding capitalist processes. Drawing on insights from Feminist IPE, Feminist Economics, and Feminist Political Economy of Development, the authors propose using social reproduction as a prism to examine labor and work in the Global South from a feminist standpoint. Insights from these feminist perspectives offer a comprehensive way to analyze the complexities of labor in the Global South and how reproductive dynamics shape the global economy in various ways, including state relations, care provisions, blending of productive and reproductive temporalities, paid/unpaid work within and beyond the household, and global processes of commodification.