Hidden in Plain Sight: reconsidering the value of social reproduction, work and nature

Taking as its starting point Marilyn Waring’s painstaking research into the workings of the United Nations Systems of National Accounts (UNSNA), this paper sets out to engage with critiques of the use of annual growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measurement of national wellbeing. Attention then turns to the current COVID-19 pandemic, which is read for indications not only of the failure of neoliberalism’s pursuit of economic growth to secure the wellbeing of citizens through the, but also for signs and ways that narratives and values have been disrupted since March 2020. Two strands of interlinking thought are then set out: the degrowth movement with its arguments for care-focused approaches to political economy, and the search for alternatives to the current ‘growthism’. Feminist criticism of the degrowth movement’s failure to engage with the work of Waring and ecofeminists more generally, as well as the limitations of the term ‘care’ open up further exploration of the devaluation of nature, women and social reproduction work. Val Plumwood’s feminist critique of the master identity and the dualisms that are derived from it, particularly in relation to slavery, are followed through into Silvia Federici’s assertion that the development of capitalism was facilitated by violence and devaluation, of women and of their work. To the search for resources that inspire fresh imaginaries of a world in which difference is not linked to hierarchy and dominance is added the story of “the lowly Jesus” washing his disciples’ feet. Jesus’ disruption of dualisms associated with the household and hospitality, is situated in contrast with the role of the Church in upholding dominant power models. In conclusion, the paper returns to the issue of growth and its destructive impacts on the earth, making clear that progress within the capitalist system is not commensurate with freedom for women or the wellbeing of the earth. The urgent need for solidarity across gender, race and class difference that engages with the earth as a political subject is offered as a basis for the search for alternatives to growth.