Solving the European crisis in social reproduction? Sustainability and justice in the European semester after the Green Deal

Rosalind Cavaghan

Chapter 12 in Critical Political Economy of the European Polycrisis, 2025, pp 176-192 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The EU's Green Deal (EGD) aims for net-zero by 2050 and a transition to a sustainable economy that is ‘just and inclusive’. This chapter examines these justice claims in relation to social reproduction (SR), an oft-overlooked economic sector which has long been over-exploited in EU economic policy, creating an SR crisis. Examining European Semester documents, this chapter finds rhetorical re-orientation to human welfare, and commitment to cushioning unequal impacts of the transition, in the EU's post-EGD economic policy. However, non-recognition of SR as an essential foundation of the economy and elision of inequalities in SR burdens, both continue after the EGD. New efforts to cushion unequal policy impacts also do not extend to unequal SR burdens. The EU's sustainability vision therefore remains incomplete. It fails to address the systemic depletion of the SR sector and attendant inequalities. The EU's Green Deal risks deepening, rather than ameliorating, the EU's crisis in SR.

Keywords: European Green Deal; EGD; Social reproduction; SR; Economic governance; Gender inequality; European Semester; Sustainability; Intersectional inequailty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035347933
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035347940.00020 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:24002_12

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().