Circuits of Social Reproduction: Nature, Labor, and Capitalism

Abstract

This article offers a reformulation of social reproduction theory’s (SRT’s) circuit of social reproduction that is suitable for the Global South. Drawing from existing literature, the article argues that wage labor is not always central to social reproduction and that there exist multiple labors of social reproduction associated with capitalist production, noncapitalist commodity production, and subsistence production. These stylized interrelated labor processes, which are coconstituted with nature, represent the circuits of social reproduction. The circuits clarify how working people engage in social reproduction even when the wage economy is inadequate for survival. They also offer a basis for interrogating crises of social reproduction when the totality of work time does not guarantee socially determined necessary consumption. These reworked circuits present opportunities for identifying both potential sites of exploitation and sites of resistance in the Global South. JEL Classification: B51, B54, Q56