Reproducing the Global Factory
\nPolitical Economy of Reproductive Labour in London and New York <\/p>\n
Theoretical analysis of the uniquely interesting position both politically and epistemologically held by waged \/ unwaged reproductive workers in the context of a general reproductive labour regime emerging in New York and London<\/p>\n
Workers and worker organisations offer reflections on the specificities of neo-liberal reproductive work \u2013 LABOUR CONTENT \/\/ POLITICAL CONTENT
\nPrivatised, undervalued, gendered and racialised <\/p>\n
The home \u2013 requires a definition \u2013 as the site of production of humans, Factory of the selves, relational labour, concrete social divisions of home based work \/ visible & invisible
\nAs the principle site of reproduction
\nAs a space \/ As a workplace
\nClass composition of workers \/ subject in the home
\nThe housewife \u2013 a historical product of social engineering
\nHow to locate \/ discuss the home now? Don\u2019t want to focus on the middle class only. The home as a site of consumption \u2013 of commodities and of labour <\/p>\n
Official counting \/ govt reports \/ stats
\n% of women working outside the home
\nwhere are they working
\nfalling birth rate cf. migration
\nage of marriage % of marriage % of divorce rate
\n% of waged reproductive workers in the home \u2013 estimates only<\/p>\n
Childcare \t\t\/\/ Nannies
\nCleaning & Housework\t\/\/ Domestic Workers
\nSex\t\t\t\/\/ Sex Workers
\nElder Care\t\t\/\/ Domestic \/ Care workers<\/p>\n
Cleaning: housework, migration has meant more cheap labour available, always a job for working class women \u2013 cleaning other people\u2019s homes. Refusal of women to continue to do this work. Inability to do it and work full time, standards of cleaning<\/p>\n
Childcare: affects all working women with children, maternity leave, school as 12 years of free childcare, free childcare in the UK for 3 and 4 year olds, nannies, au pairs, childcare centres, childminders, relatives <\/p>\n
Eldercare: <\/p>\n
Necessity of both child and elder care for working women <\/p>\n
Analysis of the technical and social arrangements of production in the home.
\nWhat is produced in the home? <\/p>\n
What has happened historically to the home? What have been the changes? Why have these changes occurred? Is it possible to locate stable configurations of the home and the production processes that take place within it. If we investigate the effects of neo-liberalism (from the 1970\u2019s) onwards and place the changes within an economic and political framework of crisis \u2013 crisis of capital and crisis of gender \u2013 women\u2019s refusal to continue to perform unpaid labour, the demands of the women\u2019s movement \u2013 <\/p>\n
Genealogy of the home 20th century \u2013 21st century
\nWW1
\nInterwar period
\nWW2
\nPost WW2 reconstruction 50-60\u2019s
\n70\u2019s \u2013 80\u2019s
\n90- 21st C <\/p>\n
what do we need to map in order to understand the changes to the home in these periods
\n— women\u2019s participation in the labour market outside the home
\n— feminist \/ anti-colonial struggles
\n— geographical movements \u2013 to the suburbs
\n— migration patterns
\n— decline of manufacturing \/ growth of service industry
\n— feminisation of the labour market
\n— capital \/ finance capital <\/p>\n
historical questions <\/p>\n
\u2013 formation of the working class \/ of the poor
\nthe centrality of the home (texts: London hanged, Making of the English Working Class, Labour Lost)<\/p>\n
Midnight notes: the revolts of feminism \u2013 leads to the development of the service industry
\nLooking at this industry \u2013 the service industry (what would Marx say about this commodification of the reproductive labour) is it productive for capital \/ or just reproductive for the working class? Does it produce profit for the ruling class? <\/p>\n
What role has the reconfiguration of the home and the labour and production taking place within it played in the increasing inequity and redistribution of wealth in the 21st C?<\/p>\n
To map the home now \u2013 is to map a neo-liberal home. What work is now done in the home? What work is now done outside? Under what conditions? And by who?
\nWhat is neo-liberalism. What do we mean by the neo-liberal home?
\nFrom the 70\u2019s onwards \u2013 consumption lead growth. Wages \u2013 shift to debt
\nAre we now seeing a contraction of the service industry? <\/p>\n
Compare the USA \/ UK
\nA story of slavery, colonialism and post colonialism.
\nWhat role did slavery \/ colonialism play in constructing the home and work within it
\nGendered work \u2013 but also racialised work
\nHome based work in the USA \u2013 slavery, slave work, black women\u2019s work, immigrants work
\nHistorically the impact of colonialism on the home, role of decolonisation and anti-colonial struggles, civil rights movement, black rights movement \/ women\u2019s movement
\nRe-colonisation through capitalist globalisation \/ migration
\nHome countries and global remittances<\/p>\n
What relationship does the home have now to previous demands (from social movements \u2013 civil rights, feminists, migrants) and struggles
\nWhat struggles and resistances are emerging now \/ exist now in the home
\nWhat are the dynamics of the conflicts in the home
\nConsequences of demands \/ struggle \u2013 gains at what cost?
\nCan we politically evaluate previous demands <\/p>\n
Fragmentation of the home
\n–\twhat is transforming the home now?
\n–\tStruggle of the subjects \u2013 as workers and non-paid labourers
\n–\tDemands of the market \/ capital
\n–\tChanges to work outside the home
\n–\tMigration patterns \u2013 as autonomous movement? <\/p>\n
Waged work in the home
\n–\tre\/emergence of waged work in the home
\n–\tintimate labours conference in USA 2007?
\n–\thow common is it?
\n–\tIf we focus on domestic, care and sex work
\n–\tRational for limiting the scope to these \u2013 traditional role of the housewife
\n–\tNot to forget the previous transformations of reproductive labour that has moved outside of the home \u2013 clothes, textiles, food
\n–\tWhat is left is bounded by location \u2013 the question of sex?
\n–\tUnique location of work in the home
\no\tIsolated, privatised, devalued
\n–\tsimilarities of workers situation and demands in relation to violence, abuse, exploitation to that of previous feminist discourse on the location of women in the home
\no\tpreviously men were the focus, patriarchy, limit of collective organising, individualised, making dumb, lacking in opportunity
\no\tnow the employers are overwhelmingly women
\no\tpolitics of visibility
\no\tdoing the work that makes all other work possible <\/p>\n
What was the narrative of 2nd wave feminism?
\n–\tevaluate the gains that have been proclaimed. Who won the discourse war? Liberal feminism
\n–\twhat would a contemporary analysis from a materialist feminist perspective look like
\n–\twe now have state feminism, institutionalised gender equality
\n–\thow do the majority of women arrange their reproductive labour while working
\n–\tif 70% of women work \u2013 who looks after the children, cleans the house,
\n–\tnecessity of dual income households
\n–\tdouble shift \/ work inside and outside the home
\n–\tis the answer just that men should do more housework? <\/p>\n
And what of Marx?
\n–\twaged work, Adam Smith and domestic work. Not productive labour
\n–\tthe debate about productive \/ non-productive
\n–\tfollowing marx \u2013 but incorporating feminist contributions to the debate
\n–\twhat happens if we conceptualise work in the home as labour, and as productive labour
\n–\tcertainly the home is a site of reproduction of capitalist social relations \u2013
\n–\trelation to the wage <\/p>\n
A question of methods
\n–\taction research
\n–\tworkers inquiry \/ militant research [precarious la dervia text from Maria?]
\n–\tinterviews with feminists from the 70\u2019s as history
\no\tin depth interviews with five key feminists from 70\u2019s \/ 80\u2019s era
\n–\tgumtree ad for nannies, domestics and cleaners
\n–\tpay for interviews and travel
\n–\tsex worker organisation \u2013 who do they see the work that they do? Is sex care?
\n–\tDomestic Workers United in New York \u2013 bill of rights, legislation
\n–\tInterviews with families
\no\tAt home with a working family in London \/ New York
\no\tShe \/ he works \u2013 have children
\no\tAs employers
\no\tThe nanny \/ childcare arrangements \/ au pair
\n\u2022\tWhere does she live
\n\u2022\tHer visa \/ age \/ status
\n\u2022\tHer children?
\no\tDomestic worker \/ cleaner
\n\u2022\tPhD students with cleaners??
\n\u2022\tWhat work are they expected to do
\n\u2022\tPaid by time?
\no\tElder Care
\n\u2022\tTaking care of who?
\n\u2022\tWhat other options are there for healthcare for the elderly
\no\tHow do people arrange care services in their home \u2013 currently
\n\u2022\tHow would they like to have this happen in relation to staying at home \/ working \/ sharing with their partner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reproducing the Global Factory Political Economy of Reproductive Labour in London and New York Theoretical analysis of the uniquely interesting position both politically and epistemologically held by waged \/ unwaged reproductive workers in the context of a general reproductive labour regime emerging in New York and London Workers and worker organisations offer reflections on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.derelictspaces.net\/seizethemeansofreproduction\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.derelictspaces.net\/seizethemeansofreproduction\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.derelictspaces.net\/seizethemeansofreproduction\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.derelictspaces.net\/seizethemeansofreproduction\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.derelictspaces.net\/seizethemeansofreproduction\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.derelictspaces.net\/seizethemeansofreproduction\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39,"href":"https:\/\/www.derelictspaces.net\/seizethemeansofreproduction\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.derelictspaces.net\/seizethemeansofreproduction\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.derelictspaces.net\/seizethemeansofreproduction\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.derelictspaces.net\/seizethemeansofreproduction\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}