[ABGESAGT] Who takes the blame in the current crisis of social reproduction?

Abstract

Existing research shows that neoliberal capitalism leads to a (re‑)privatisation of social reproduction in a double sense: Cut backs in public services reassign an increasing share of social reproductive labour to nuclear families – particularly to their female members. In turn, families who can afford it then outsource part of this labour to private providers of care services. This «double privatisation» leads to a growing feminised, migrantised and multiply-marginalised care labour force that works under precarious conditions. This outsourcing is accelerated by digitial technologies that simplify the transnational recruitment and spatial allocation of on-demand workers.

In our paper, we want to challenge some aspects of how this narrative of the (re‑)privatisation of care is often told. We argue that it tends to implicitly blame well-off women for buying their way out of reproductive labour on the backs of marginalised women. To illustrate our argument, we draw on interviews with women who are customers of digital platforms providing care services in Delhi, India. Our data foregrounds their ambivalences towards buying social reproductive services via digital platforms.

In conclusion, our paper aims at reframing the crisis of social reproduction as a crisis of the current neoliberal order rather than a moral failing of individual well-off women. And we point to alternative visions of (more) caring societies.