This document discusses several topics related to feminist economics, finance, and the commons, including: 1) Capitalism and "new enclosures" of the commons, how capitalism has expanded over the last century. 2) Marxist feminist perspectives on social reproduction and how unpaid domestic labor sustains society. 3) The role of the commons and potential strategies for change, such as recognizing and valuing social reproductive labor.

1. Feminist Economics,
Finance, and the Commons
FAB LAB 24 APRIL 2019

2. • Capital and the New Enclosures
• Social Reproduction and Marxist Feminism
• The Role of the Commons and Strategies for
Change

81. Over the last quarter of a
century something
fundamental seems to
have changed in the way
in which capitalism works.
The tendency since 1970
has been towards greater
geographical mobility of
capital.

82. Rather than being a modest
helper to the capital
accumulation process,
[finance] gradually turned into
a driving force.
Speculative finance became a
kind of secondary engine for
growth given the weakness in
the primary engine, productive
investment.

94. Morality!
Madness!
Generations!
We’re the thicko
Irish!

98. capitalism in the past (as distinct from capitalism today) only
occupied a narrow platform of economic life. How could one possibly
take it to mean a ‘system’ extending over the whole of society?
(Wheels, p.239)

99. capitalism in the past (as distinct from capitalism today) only
occupied a narrow platform of economic life. How could one possibly
take it to mean a ‘system’ extending over the whole of society?
It was nevertheless a world apart, different from and indeed foreign
to the social and economic context surrounding it. And it is in relation
to this context that it is defined as ‘capitalism’, not merely in relation
to new capitalist forms which were to emerge later in time.
In fact capitalism was what it was in relation to a non-
capitalism of immense proportions.
(Wheels, p.239)

100. capitalism in the past (as distinct from capitalism today) only
occupied a narrow platform of economic life. How could one possibly
take it to mean a ‘system’ extending over the whole of society?
It was nevertheless a world apart, different from and indeed foreign
to the social and economic context surrounding it. And it is in relation
to this context that it is defined as ‘capitalism’, not merely in relation
to new capitalist forms which were to emerge later in time.
In fact capitalism was what it was in relation to a non-
capitalism of immense proportions.
And to refuse to admit this dichotomy within the economy of the past,
on the pretext that ‘true’ capitalism dates only from the nineteenth
century, means abandoning the effort to understand the significance
– crucial to the analysis of that economy – of what might be termed
the former typology of capitalism.
(Wheels, p.239)

101. capitalism in the past (as distinct from capitalism today) only
occupied a narrow platform of economic life. How could one possibly
take it to mean a ‘system’ extending over the whole of society?
It was nevertheless a world apart, different from and indeed foreign
to the social and economic context surrounding it. And it is in relation
to this context that it is defined as ‘capitalism’, not merely in relation
to new capitalist forms which were to emerge later in time.
In fact capitalism was what it was in relation to a non-
capitalism of immense proportions.
And to refuse to admit this dichotomy within the economy of the past,
on the pretext that ‘true’ capitalism dates only from the nineteenth
century, means abandoning the effort to understand the significance
– crucial to the analysis of that economy – of what might be termed
the former typology of capitalism.
If there were certain areas where it elected residence – by no
means inadvertently – that is because these were the only areas
which favoured the reproduction of capital.” (Wheels, p.239)

102. the distinction of sectors between what I have called the
‘economy’ (or the market economy) and ‘capitalism’ does
not seem to me to be anything new, but rather a constant
in Europe since the Middle Ages.
There is another difference too: I would argue that a third
sector should be added to the pre-industrial model – that
the lowest stratum of the non-economy, the soil into
which capitalism thrusts its roots but which it can never
really penetrate.
This lowest layer remains an enormous one.
(Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism 15th-18th
Century vol.II: The Wheels of Commerce, London: Collins,
1982, pp.229-30.).

103. Above it, comes the favoured terrain of the
market economy, with its many horizontal
communications between the different markets:
here a degree of automatic coordination usually
links supply, demand and prices.
(Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism
15th-18th Century vol.II: The Wheels of
Commerce, London: Collins, 1982, pp.229-30.).

104. Then alongside, or rather above this layer, comes
the zone of the anti-market, where the great
predators roam and the law of the jungle
operates. This – today as in the past, before and
after the industrial revolution – is the real home of
capitalism.”
(Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism 15th-
18th Century vol.II: The Wheels of Commerce,
London: Collins, 1982, pp.229-30.).

107. Going beyond Braudel’s original argument, household production can be
considered as a case in point for such daily, unconscious routines. This
then signals one trajectory for understanding aspects of social
reproduction over time.
Indeed the politics of the everyday offers a current consideration of
the separation of life purposes (such as working life, family life and
sex life) and the social construction of such spaces.
Isabella Bakker (2007) ‘Social Reproduction and the Constitution of a Gendered
Political Economy’, New Political Economy 12:4.

108. Going beyond Braudel’s original argument, household production can be
considered as a case in point for such daily, unconscious routines. This
then signals one trajectory for understanding aspects of social
reproduction over time.
Indeed the politics of the everyday offers a current consideration of the
separation of life purposes (such as working life, family life and sex life)
and the social construction of such spaces.
It should be noted that, despite Braudel’s many valuable conceptual
inroads, he does not apply gender to his analysis and does not
explicitly consider the sexual division of labour in his trilogy.
Isabella Bakker (2007) ‘Social Reproduction and the Constitution of a Gendered
Political Economy’, New Political Economy 12:4.

109. Going beyond Braudel’s original argument, household production can be
considered as a case in point for such daily, unconscious routines. This
then signals one trajectory for understanding aspects of social
reproduction over time.
Indeed the politics of the everyday offers a current consideration of the
separation of life purposes (such as working life, family life and sex life)
and the social construction of such spaces.
It should be noted that, despite Braudel’s many valuable conceptual
inroads, he does not apply gender to his analysis and does not explicitly
consider the sexual division of labour in his trilogy.
However… his conceptualisations of material life can aid us in
understanding the historical dynamics that underpin social
reproduction.
Isabella Bakker (2007) ‘Social Reproduction and the Constitution of a Gendered
Political Economy’, New Political Economy 12:4.

110. Social Reproduction
Renewing life is a form of work, a kind of production, as
fundamental to the perpetuation of society as the production of
things.
Barbara Laslett and Johanna Brenner, ’ Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical
Perspectives,’ Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 15 (1989): 383

111. Social Reproduction
Renewing life is a form of work, a kind of production, as
fundamental to the perpetuation of society as the production of
things.
Moreover, the social organization of that work, the set of social
relationships through which people act to get it done, has varied
widely and that variation has been central to the organization of
gender relations and gender inequality.
Barbara Laslett and Johanna Brenner, ’ Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical
Perspectives,’ Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 15 (1989): 383

112. Social Reproduction
Renewing life is a form of work, a kind of production, as
fundamental to the perpetuation of society as the production of
things.
Moreover, the social organization of that work, the set of social
relationships through which people act to get it done, has varied
widely and that variation has been central to the organization of
gender relations and gender inequality.
From this point of view, societal reproduction includes not only
the organization of production but the organization of social
reproduction, and the perpetuation of gender as well as class
relations.
Barbara Laslett and Johanna Brenner, ’ Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical
Perspectives,’ Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 15 (1989): 383

113. Over the past thirty years, despite being essential to human life, neoliberal
restructuring across the world has privatised, eroded and demolished our shared
resources, and ushered in a ‘crisis of social reproduction.’
‘Cuts are a Feminist Issue’, Soundings (Dec 2011), p.73.

114. The term social reproduction encompasses all the means by which society
reproduces its families, citizens and workers. It includes all the labour that is
necessary for a society to reproduce itself: the biological production of people and
workers, and all the social practices that sustain the population – bearing children,
raising children, performing emotional work, providing clothing and food, and
cooking and cleaning.
As a concept social reproduction has been key to feminist social theory, because it
challenges the usual distinctions that are made between productive and
reproductive labour, or between the labour market and the home.
‘Cuts are a Feminist Issue’,

115. Labour in this sphere is often devalued and privatised, and is typically performed by
women in their ‘double day’ or ‘second shift’, alongside paid wage labour.
‘Cuts are a Feminist Issue’,

116. Labour in this sphere is often devalued and privatised, and is typically performed by
women in their ‘double day’ or ‘second shift’, alongside paid wage labour.
But reproductive labour of this kind
is just as central to capitalist accumulation as are other forms of labour,
which means that
‘Cuts are a Feminist Issue’,

117. Labour in this sphere is often devalued and privatised, and is typically performed by
women in their ‘double day’ or ‘second shift’, alongside paid wage labour.
But reproductive labour of this kind
is just as central to capitalist accumulation as are other forms of labour,
which means that
struggles over its structure and distribution are fundamental to any
understanding of issues of power and the relationships between labour and
capital, as well as the potential for their transformation.
‘Cuts are a Feminist Issue’,

131. Rational Economic Man
• An autonomous agent
• able bodied, independent,
rational, heterosexual male
who is able to choose from an
number of options limited
only by certain constraints.
• Weighs cost and benefits to
maximise utility
• Self interested in
marketplace; altruistic at
home

134. Conventional androcentric assumptions have not been critically
examined in scientific and technological (S&T) culture; in the
international, national and local mediating agencies that deliver
S&T development; or in the communities that are the recipients
of development.
Sandra Harding (1995) ‘Just add women and stir?’ Missing Links: Gender Equity in
Science and Technology for Development.

135. Conventional androcentric assumptions have not been critically
examined in scientific and technological (S&T) culture; in the
international, national and local mediating agencies that deliver
S&T development; or in the communities that are the recipients
of development.
However, because women are primary deliverers of community
welfare on a daily basis to children, the sick and elderly, their
households, and the larger social networks that maintain
communities, the failure of development projects with respect to
women is automatically felt by social groups who depend on their
labour and social services.
Sandra Harding (1995) ‘Just add women and stir?’ Missing Links: Gender Equity in
Science and Technology for Development.

136. Gender bias in the definition of economically
productive activity has important implications
for the analysis of changes in female labour-
force participation. One aspect of such gender
bias – the concept of the unproductive
housewife – gradually coalesced in the
nineteenth-century censuses of population in
England and the United States.
Nancy Folbre, ‘The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution in
Nineteenth-Century Thought’, Signs, Spring 1991; 16, 3, p.463-4.

137. Gender bias in the definition of economically
productive activity has important implications
for the analysis of changes in female labour-
force participation. One aspect of such gender
bias – the concept of the unproductive
housewife – gradually coalesced in the
nineteenth-century censuses of population in
England and the United States.
In 1800, women whose work consisted largely
of caring for their families were considered
productive workers. By 1900, they had been
formally relegated to the census category of
“dependents,” a category that included infants,
young children, the sick and the elderly.
Nancy Folbre, ‘The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution in
Nineteenth-Century Thought’, Signs, Spring 1991; 16, 3, p.463-4.

138. From the very outset, political economy was
preoccupied with the distinction between
productive and unproductive labour. In the
eighteenth century, the French Physiocrats
suggested that agriculture was the only true
source of surplus and described profits earned
in manufacturing as mere distribution.
Nancy Folbre, ‘The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution in
Nineteenth-Century Thought’, Signs, Spring 1991; 16, 3, p.469

139. From the very outset, political economy was
preoccupied with the distinction between
productive and unproductive labour. In the
eighteenth century, the French Physiocrats
suggested that agriculture was the only true
source of surplus and described profits earned
in manufacturing as mere distribution.
But the Scottish economist Adam Smith offered
a spirited defence of manufacturing and called
for a new definition of productive labour, based
on the addition of “net value” to a vendible
commodity.
Nancy Folbre, ‘The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution in
Nineteenth-Century Thought’, Signs, Spring 1991; 16, 3, p.469

140. From the very outset, political economy was
preoccupied with the distinction between
productive and unproductive labour. In the
eighteenth century, the French Physiocrats
suggested that agriculture was the only true
source of surplus and described profits earned
in manufacturing as mere distribution.
But the Scottish economist Adam Smith offered
a spirited defence of manufacturing and called
for a new definition of productive labour, based
on the addition of “net value” to a vendible
commodity.
He argued that services were unproductive
because they did not contribute to the
accumulation of physical wealth.
Domestic servants, for example, merely
enhanced their employers’ standard of living.
Nancy Folbre, ‘The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution in
Nineteenth-Century Thought’, Signs, Spring 1991; 16, 3, p.469

141. By the end of the nineteenth century, most
economists had come to agree that all paid
services should be considered productive, and
many advocated the term “unproductive” be
dropped from the language of their discipline.
Nancy Folbre, ‘The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution in
Nineteenth-Century Thought’, Signs, Spring 1991; 16, 3, p.470

142. By the end of the nineteenth century, most
economists had come to agree that all paid
services should be considered productive, and
many advocated the term “unproductive” be
dropped from the language of their discipline.
Yet, almost to a man, they also agreed that
nonmarket services lay outside the realm of
economics and therefore did not contribute to
economic growth.
Nancy Folbre, ‘The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution in
Nineteenth-Century Thought’, Signs, Spring 1991; 16, 3, p.470

143. By the end of the nineteenth century, most
economists had come to agree that all paid
services should be considered productive, and
many advocated the term “unproductive” be
dropped from the language of their discipline.
Yet, almost to a man, they also agreed that
nonmarket services lay outside the realm of
economics and therefore did not contribute to
economic growth.
While paid domestic servants were considered
part of the labour force, unpaid domestic
workers were not.
Nonmarket production – a wife’s work in the
home, for instance – was implicitly defined as
unproductive.
Nancy Folbre, ‘The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution in
Nineteenth-Century Thought’, Signs, Spring 1991; 16, 3, p.470

149. The creation of a Third World
female industrial work force
"took off" in the 1960s and by
the 1980s was a major
phenomenon in dozens of
Asian, Latin American and
African societies. -
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/art
icle/third-world-women-factories
In the twenty years from 1970 to
1990, the number of textile,
clothing and footwear (TCF)
workers increased by 597
percent in Malaysia; 416 percent
in Bangladesh; 385 percent in Sri
Lanka; 334 percent in Indonesia;
271 percent in the Philippines;
and 137 percent in Korea.
http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/media-
centre/press-releases/WCMS_008075/lang--
en/index.htm

183. … Matheson attorney Dualta Counihan has served as a director of at least 274 entities, based on Irish records, while
attorney George Brady has served as a director of at least 232 entities.

184. One company – 200
employees
One employee– 200
companies

199. There is no commons without
active co-production
(commoning), and without an
important measure of self-
governance.
Thus, it differs from both public
and state or city-owned goods,
and from private property
managed by its owners.

216. Power is the ability to bring about
change.
The occupation of the institutions is
only one part of what makes change
possible.
The power to act comes from a
combination of occupying both the
institutions and the squares.

217. The broader discussions and alliances on the left
can most productively be framed not from the
Cold War of left equalling more state and right
equalling more market,
but as between those who uphold the existing
institutions of the state, with its separation of
parliamentary politics from the struggles and
alternatives rooted in civil society,
and those who are rooted in those struggles as the
basis of a new productive, and participatory,
politics.

218. At the end of the day, human
beings want to do things
together.
We want to do things
collectively.