Growth models and the politics of social reproduction

Dorothee Bohle

Chapter 26 in Handbook of Comparative Political Economy, 2025, pp 470-486 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The chapter highlights the importance of social reproduction for the research agenda of comparative political economy. Social reproduction has been a core site of restructuring and a dynamic sector of employment since the end of Fordism. Drawing on a diverse set of literatures – feminist political economy and feminist macroeconomics as well as social investment and family policy – the chapter foregrounds changes in the reproductive sector, the politics driving them and asks how they shape growth models and strategies. By foregrounding changes in the sector of social reproduction, the varied ways it is organized, and the implications of political struggles over social reproduction, the chapter argues that growth models and their change over time are co-constituted by reproductive and productive politics, and that these cannot be reduced to each other. Ultimately, the political economy and politics of growth models are more politicized, involving a broader range of actors, and built on more diverse foundational moral values than is often acknowledged in the political economy literature. Hence, a systematic engagement with the insights of welfare state and feminist literature is needed.

Keywords: Growth models; Social reproduction; Care; Feminist political economy; Social investment; Comparative capitalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035327775
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