Precarious Worlds: Contested Geographies of Social Reproduction [Paperback]

This collection contributes to the theoretical literature on social reproduction—defined by Marx as the necessary labor to arrive the next day at the factory gate—and extended by feminist geographers and others into complex understandings of the relationship between paid labor and the unpaid work of daily life. The volume explores new terrain in social reproduction with a focus on the challenges posed by evolving theories of embodiment and identity, nonhuman materialities, and diverse economies.

Reflecting and expanding on ongoing debates within feminist geography, with additional cross-disciplinary contributions from sociologists and political scientists, Precarious Worlds explores the productive possibilities of social reproduction as an ontology, a theoretical lens, and an analytical framework for what Geraldine Pratt has called a vigorous, materialist transnational feminism.

A rigorous, gendered perspective on how inequality is perpetuatedAs sequels go, Precarious Worlds is entirely worth reading, because it stands alone as a significant contribution to understanding the perplexing array of ways that we take care of each other under the precarious economic conditions exacerbated by the Great Recession. More than just reinforcing the arguments of Life’s Work, it introduces new concepts and problems that extend the field considerably.