Marx is generally reckoned to have had too little to say about what has come to be defined as ‘social reproduction’, largely as a consequence of too narrow a focus on industrial production, and a relative disregard for issues of gender. This paper argues in contrast that the approach he developed with Engels and in Capital, Volume 1, provides a powerful framework for its analysis. After an introductory discussion of recent literature on social reproduction the second section sets out Marx’s (...) approach to the ‘production of life, both of one’s own in labour and of fresh life in procreation’. The third addresses his account of reproduction in Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 23. The fourth and fifth compare the relationship of the family to industry and exchange as depicted in Capital and in the present day respectively. The conclusion suggests some implications for theories of social reproduction. (shrink)

In this article, I use a Marxist feminist methodology to map the organisation of migrant sex workers’ socially reproductive paid and unpaid labour in one city and country of arrival, London, UK. I argue that unfree and ‘free’ labour exists on a continuum of capitalist relations of production, which are gendered, racialised, and legal. It is within these relations that various actors implement, and migrant sex workers contest, unfree labour practices not limited to the most extreme forms. My analysis reveals (...) that many migrant sex workers have very limited ‘freedom’. This is in stark contrast to the classical liberal claim of sex worker rights activists and academics that the vast majority of migrant sex workers are free, and therefore not coerced, exploited or trafficked. I then consider whether the emerging labour approach to trafficking could help achieve ‘freedom’ for migrant sex workers. Advocates argue that anti-trafficking efforts must, and can, be refocused on extending minimum labour and social protections to all vulnerable workers. I argue that this approach is disconnected from material interests and history. Rather, migrant sex workers, sex worker rights activists, and all migrant and citizen workers and activists globally must collectively organise against ‘labour unfreedom’ and hence for meaningful control over their labour and lives. (shrink)

Assessments of the impact of automation often emphasize the need to “denaturalize” work. To what extent is denaturalization successful in separating proposals regarding the future of work from existing assumptions about its value? This article will explore this question by reading Bernard Stiegler’s politics of work in the context of his understanding of the family. It will demonstrate that while he denaturalizes work he also naturalizes background assumptions regarding its relationship to social reproductive labor by claiming that the latter is (...) “above and beyond the market.” This gesture reproduces gendered assumptions about the nature of work and fails to provide a critical account of the changing relationship between work, the family, and economic responsibility under neoliberalism. It will be concluded that Stiegler’s conservative approach to the relationship between work and the family shows that avoiding the unwitting naturalization of existing assumptions regarding work is a central problem for post-work critics. (shrink)

Las formas de pensar la dominación social han cambiado durante las últimas décadas en la teoría política, dejando atrás esquemas diádicos con centros de poder definidos. En este artículo comparamos autores de la nueva lectura de Marx, la crítica del valor y la interseccionalidad, que han ayudado redefinir la dominación social durante las últimas décadas complejizando los paradigmas que las preceden, el marxismo tradicional y el feminismo negro, respectivamente. El artículo analiza el concepto de dominación social de estas nuevas lecturas (...) de Marx atendiendo a las críticas que la interseccionalidad ha dirigido contra el marxismo tradicional. Así mostramos las posibilidades de diálogo entre estos enfoques, pero también las innegables dificultades que existen. (shrink)

The edited collectionMarxism and Feminismtraces both the conceptual divides and political affinities between feminism and Marxism. Utilising a keywords-, or core-concepts approach, the book fleshes out the tensions and contradictions that organise and orient Marxist and feminist theories and practices of social transformation. The concepts discussed inMarxism and Feminismdo not try to bridge divergent theories of exploitation or oppression; rather the tensions between feminism and Marxism are used to generate new terrains of investigation. Although the topics discussed vary widely, the (...) book is held together by a commitment to dialectical-materialist investigation and revolutionary social transformation. (shrink)