Beyond States and Markets: The Challenges of Social Reproduction

Seeking to extend our understanding of the contemporary global political economy, this book provides an important and original introduction to the current theoretical debates about social reproduction and argues for the necessity of linking social reproduction to specific contexts of power and production.

It illustrates the analytic value of the concept of social reproduction through a series of case studies that examine the implications of how labor power is reproduced and how lives outside of work are lived. The issues examined in countries including the Ukraine, Chile, Spain, Nepal, India and Indonesia, consist of:

• Human trafficking and sex work
• Women and work
• Migration, labor and gender inequality
• Micro-credit programs and investing in women
• Health, biological reproduction and assisted reproductive technologies

The book lends a unique perspective to the understandings of transformation in the global political economy precisely because of its simultaneous focus on the caring and provisioning of the everyday and its relationships to policies and decisions made at the national and international levels of both formal and informal institutions.

With its multi-disciplinary approach, this book will be indispensable to students and scholars of International Political Economy, Development Studies, Gender or Women’s Studies, International Studies, Globalization and International Relations.

Isabella Bakker is Professor of Political Science and Women's Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada.

Rachel Silvey is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Programme in Planning at the University of Toronto, Canada.