scholarly journals Back to Basics with Labor-Power

Lateral ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Cashbaugh
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Reproductive Capacity ◽  
Systematic Account ◽  
Social Reproduction Theory ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
Labor Theory ◽  
Labor Power ◽  
Cultural Struggle

Ted Striphas recently called for a return to the “problem of culture” within cultural studies. This is a political as much as a methodological provocation: “culture” became an object of analysis among mid-twentieth century scholars in dialogue with Marxist accounts of ongoing political crises. Taking a cue from this past, this essay rethinks culture in relation to the ongoing crisis in social reproduction via Social Reproduction Theory (SRT). Within some Marxist feminist currents, “social reproduction” refers to the reproduction of labor-power, Marx’s term for the capacity to work sold on the market in exchange for wages. Marxist feminists have theorized such matters at length via their analyses of the practices undergirding the reproduction of labor-power. SRT is not unfamiliar to cultural studies scholars, but those engaged with it tend to explore the representation of socially reproductive practices within culture rather than the ways culture itself contributes to labor-power’s reproduction. This is unsurprising. Historically, the field has discussed labor-power in terms of its circulation rather than its reproduction, detailing culture’s role in reproducing social systems. Drawing upon Michael Denning’s “labor theory of culture,” recent work in SRT, and Marx, I argue that culture functions in a socially reproductive capacity within the logic of capitalism. In doing so, it casts cultural struggle as a form of social reproduction struggle at the intersection of labor-power’s reproduction and that of the society that requires it. This essay constructs a systematic account of culture’s socially reproductive before using it to consider its historical expression in the current moment.

Unproductive Workers and State Repression

2021 ◽  
pp. 048661342110432
Author(s):  
Kirstin Munro
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
The State ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Social Reproduction Theory ◽  
Labor Power ◽  
Role Of The State

Social Reproduction Theory, as advanced by scholars such as Bhattacharya (2017) and Ferguson (2019), is at its core a theory of the revolutionary capacity of “unproductive” workers such as teachers, nurses, and social workers who are disproportionately women and disproportionately employed by the state. However, Social Reproduction Theory overlooks the contradictory and antagonistic role of the state in the lives of people, as the reproduction of labor power in capitalism proceeds via antagonism and state repression. The task of teachers, nurses, and social workers is the production of not just any life but that of a docile, exploitable worker. JEL classification: B51, B54, P1, I3

Doctoral capital and well-being amongst Australian PhD students: exploring capital and habitus of doctoral students

2021 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 322-336
Author(s):  
Wayne Usher ◽  
Brittany A. McCormack
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Reproduction Theory ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
The Right ◽  
Australian Universities

PurposeThe Higher Degree Research (HDR) journey is known for its difficulties, complexities and challenges (Lees-Deutsch, 2020), with many students experiencing multi-faceted issues and concerns (Skopek et al., 2020). Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the relationships that exist between variables, vulnerability factors and doctorial capital of candidates (n = 532) studying at Australian universities (2019).Design/methodology/approachA quantitative cross-sectional correlational research design and Bronfenbrenner's socio – ecological framework (personal, home, university, community) was utilised to collect participants' (n = 532) descriptive statistics. Bourdieu's social reproduction theory was used as a lens to examine how experiences, across the PhD candidature, are influenced by several psychosocial factors and doctoral capital.FindingsFrom such a dual methodological approach, the findings from this study suggests that (1) age, (2) gender, (3) nationality, (4) financial/work status, (5) years of PhD and (6) attending postgraduate (PG) student events, go to significantly (p < 0.001) impact (positively and negatively) on students' experiences and correspondingly, impacts on their self-confidence, motivation and mental health and well-being status.Research limitations/implicationsResearch limitations are related to the recruitment of more doctoral students across more Australian universities. Further research is required from HDR supervisors, so as to “balance” the experiences of the PhD journey in higher education.Practical implicationsIn order to succeed in academia and HDR programs, students need to identify with and develop the “right kind of capital” to successfully navigate fields of social and scholarly play. Investigating how the participants perceive their social and scholarly habitus is seen as crucial in helping students to develop positive dispositions relevant to being a doctoral student.Social implicationsThe concept of doctoral capital and well-being, amongst Australian PhD students, is under researched and requires further investigation as a precursor to developing more specific policy designs aimed at providing heightened positive learning environments/HDR programs tailored to support doctoral students.Originality/valueWhilst reforms to improve PhD experiences are well established across the international literature (Geven et al., 2018; Skopek et al., 2020), evidence for Australia is largely missing. It is envisaged, that findings from this research will further assist in the development of quality policies that would go to provide effective services and support for doctoral students within Australian universities.

scholarly journals Explanation or Understanding? Movement Studies Between Natural Sciences and Cultural Studies

2014 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henning Eichberg
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Cultural Struggle ◽  
Health Studies ◽  
State Of Research ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods

Abstract Movement studies are - like health studies - placed between natural sciences and cultural studies as well as between quantitative and qualitative methods. That is why they are challenged by some methodological contradictions. Yet the dual relations between nature and culture, and between quantitative and qualitative methods, may be of superficial character. Deeper beneath, one finds tensions with theoretical implications: between the quest for evidence and the comparative method, between generalization and case study, between explanation and understanding, between the correctness of the answer and the quality of the question, between affirmative and fluent knowledge, between factors and connections, between data and patterns, between the state of research and historical change of knowledge, between objectivity and subjectivity, and between theory and philosophy. There seems to be something akin to cultural struggle in the field of knowledge. Yet the dual contradictions do not comprise two neatly separated “cultures of knowledge” that exclude each other. There are cross-disciplinary connections and overlaps, which help toward an understanding of human life.

The Geographer Marx

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-64
Keyword(s):  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Dialectical Materialism ◽  
Labor Theory Of Value ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Critical Theories ◽  
Labor Theory ◽  
Critical Human Geography ◽  
Global North ◽  
Commodification Of Nature ◽  
Theory Of Value

In celebration of Marx's 200th birth anniversary, this symposium revisits how Marx has influenced geography research and pedagogy. Capital, capitalism, commodity, use value, surplus value, labor theory of value, class, exploitation, class struggle, dialectics, dialectical materialism are now ubiquitous in critical human geography research. Theories inspired by Marxism like critical theories of imperialism, geographic transfer of value, dependency has been the mainstay for envisioning relationship between Global North and Global South. Theories inspired by class, class-consciousness and ideology have inspired geographies of labor, labor unionism and social movements. Commodity, commodification of nature, production, and accumulation has also inspired post-structural and feminist research on social reproduction, feminization of poverty and informality, environmental degradation, climate change, and consumption landscape. In this symposium, authors self-select concepts, ideas, theories, and metaphors from Marx and discuss how, and in what ways, these influenced their work (research and teaching), and also how their Marxist geography influences Marxism and society.

scholarly journals Social form, social reproduction and social policy: Basic income, basic services, basic infrastructure

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorena Lombardozzi ◽  
Frederick Harry Pitts
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Form Analysis ◽  
Social Form ◽  
Social Reproduction Theory ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
Basic Infrastructure

Proponents recommend Universal Basic Income as a solution to a trifold crisis of work, wage and social democracy. Synthesising Marxian form analysis with Marxist-feminist social reproduction theory, this article suggests that these crises relate to historically specific capitalist social forms: labour, money and the state. These separate but interlocking crises of social form are temporary and contingent expressions of an underlying, permanent crisis of social reproduction. Mistaking the pervasive crisis of social reproduction in its totality for a temporary or contingent trifold crisis of work, wage or social democracy, Universal Basic Income proposals seek to solve it by moving through the same social forms through which they take effect, rather than confronting the social relations that constitute their antagonistic undertow and generate the crisis of social reproduction. The article considers two other solutions proposed to handle the deeper-rooted crisis with which Universal Basic Income grapples: Universal Basic Services and Universal Basic Infrastructure. Both propose non-monetary ways past the impasses of the Universal Basic Income, addressing much more directly the constrained basis of individual and collective reproduction that characterises capitalist social relations. But they retain a link with capitalist social forms of money and state that may serve to close rather than open the path to real alternatives. The article concludes that the contradictions these ‘abstract universals’ touch upon are best mediated through more bottom-up and struggle-based ‘concrete universals’ that address the manifold crises of work, wage and social democracy that undergird them. Such alternatives would leave open dynamic tensions around work and welfare in contemporary capitalism without promise of their incomplete resolution in the name of a false universality unattainable in a world characterised by antagonism, domination and crisis.

scholarly journals Social Interaction and the City: The Effect of Space on the Reduction of Entropy

Complexity ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinicius M. Netto ◽  
Joao Meirelles ◽  
Fabiano L. Ribeiro
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Information Environment ◽  
Coherent Systems ◽  
Elementary Processes ◽  
Vital Part ◽  
Spatial Systems ◽  
Individual Actions ◽  
The City

How can individual acts amount to coherent systems of interaction? In this paper, we attempt to answer this key question by suggesting that there is a place for cities in the way we coordinate seemingly chaotic decisions. We look into the elementary processes of social interaction exploring a particular concept, “social entropy,” or how social systems deal with uncertainty and unpredictability in the transition from individual actions to systems of interaction. Examining possibilities that (i) actions rely on informational differences latent in their environments and that (ii) the city itself is an information environment to actions, we propose that (iii) space becomes a form of creating differences in the probabilities of interaction. We investigate this process through simulations of distinct material scenarios, to find that space is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the reduction of entropy. Finally, we suggest that states and fluctuations of entropy are a vital part of social reproduction and reveal a deep connection between social, informational, and spatial systems.

Lifeways and territorial innovation: values and practices for promoting collective appropriation of territory

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Obeimar B Herrera ◽  
Manuel Parra ◽  
Iris Livscovsky ◽  
Pedro Ramos ◽  
Daniela Gallardo
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Self Management ◽  
Theoretical Principle ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Social Reproduction Theory ◽  
Practical Usefulness ◽  
Agents Of Change

Abstract In recent decades, most multilateral organizations and other agents of change have used the theoretical approach of sustainable livelihoods to guide their work. This approach has been criticized in recent years for promoting a short-term materialist focus in development projects, thus limiting its practical usefulness and feasibility. Due to the necessity for renewed proposals, a group of community cargos and researchers have developed a long-term comparative retrospective study that goes beyond the conventional approach. It provides a framework with a broader theoretical scope and applied utility grounded on local self-management: lifeways and territorial innovation. Our constructivist approach, based on Bourdieu´s Social Reproduction theory, is aimed at promoting and triggering a sense of territoriality within the communities and further onto the more extensive territory. Since the work was developed along with people from rural communities, we utilized the concept of Social Learning as to enrich the former theoretical principle.

scholarly journals THE CHALLENGE TOWARDS THE HEGEMONY OF HETERONORMATIVITY AS DEPICTED IN JENNY’S WEDDING: A PIERRE BOURDIEU’S SOCIAL REPRODUCTION THEORY

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Lisa Okta Wulandari ◽  
Dewi Haryani Susilastuti
Keyword(s):  
Coming Out ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Social Reproduction Theory ◽  
Gender Norm ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Lgbt People ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Definition Of

In America, the definition of marriage has changed. The Supreme Court has legalized same-sex marriage. As the growth of LGBT people slowly continues, and they keep struggle and fight for their equality, heterosexuals might feel threatened. This study aims to know how the same-sex relationship challenges the hegemony of heteronormativity and whether or not the gender norm has been shifted as proof. This study uses Jenny's Wedding (2015). It focuses on gender position, role, and responsibility in heteronormativity and homosexuality. This study uses the sociological approach and gender theory, to see the relation between heteronormativity and the individuals also Pierre Bourdieu’s social reproduction theory to see the shifting of gender norm. The finding shows that heteronormativity is used as the standard to judge, stereotype, expect things, and make assumptions. The recognition and support from society towards LGBT people and their coming out give challenges for the existenceof heterosexuals. Therefore, the contact of heteronormativity and homosexuality makes the heteronormativity no longer pure. When homosexuality affects gender norm, there must be changes in the gender norm itself.Keywords: gender; hegemony; heteronormativity; homosexuality; same-sex relationship

Gendercraft: Marxism–Feminism, Reproduction, and the Blind Spot of Money

2021 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-65
Author(s):  
Elena Louisa Lange
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Monetary Theory ◽  
Social Reproduction Theory ◽  
Feminist Literature ◽  
Argumentative Move ◽  
Women's Oppression ◽  
Theory Of Value

The plausibility of “gendered exploitation” as a sine qua non of capitalism, as articulated by both classic Marxist–feminism since the 1970s and more recently by authors of social reproduction theory, stands or falls with the evaluation of Marx's theory of value. From the standpoint of both Marx's monetary theory of value and the problem of quantification, the use of “women's oppression” in capitalist social reproduction appears to be questionable. This also necessitates a deeper analysis of the use of “gender” in the wider field of pertinent Marxist–feminist literature. Arguments for “gendered exploitation” often hinge on unsound premises that introduce a naturalizing view of social relations. Analogous to Barbara and Karen Fields' intervention against “Racecraft,” the term “Gendercraft” may represent this argumentative move. The notion of gender as the site of specifically capitalist exploitation is thus challenged and countered with a new emphasis on struggles against the wage relation as the site of anticapitalist resistance.

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