Social Reproduction and Pandemic Neoliberalism: Planetary Crises and the Reorganization of Life, Work and Death

Mezzadri, Alessandra

Abstract

This article portrays the COVID-19 pandemic as a planetary crisis of capitalist life and analyses it through the feminist political economy lens of social reproduction. Celebrating the plurality and distinctiveness of social reproduction theorisations, the article deploys three approaches to map the contours of the present conjuncture; namely Social Reproduction Theory, Early Social Reproduction Analyses and Raced Social Reproduction approaches. These provide key complementary insights over the planetary crisis and reorganisation of life, work and death triggered by the pandemic. Through the compounded insights of social reproduction theorisations, the article argues that the pandemic does not represent a crisis of neoliberalism. Rather, it represents its outcome, and deepening of its logics, an argument which is substantiated by exploring the impact of COVID-19 on the reproductive architecture of neoliberal capitalism; on the world of work; and on racialised processes manufacturing different kinds of surplus subjects. In conclusion, the article discusses the political implications of this social reproduction-centred reading of the pandemic for a progressive post-pandemic politics to move beyond pandemic neoliberalism.

Citation

Mezzadri, A. (2022). Social Reproduction and Pandemic Neoliberalism: Planetary Crises and the Reorganization of Life, Work and Death. Organization, 29(3), 379-400. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084221074042

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 8, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Feb 20, 2022
• Publication Date: May 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jan 26, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 26, 2022
• Journal: Organization: The Critical Journal of Organization, Theory and Society
• Print ISSN: 1350-5084
• Electronic ISSN: 1461-7323
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 29
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 379-400
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084221074042
• Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, crisis of capitalist life, early social reproduction analyses, feminist political economy, gender and racial inequality, health and education, pandemic neoliberalism, raced social reproduction approaches, social reproduction theory, surplus subjects
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13505084221074042