Women,Gender,Sexuality Studies 395R - S- Social Reproduction: Class

"Social reproduction" is the term given to how societies re/produce certain essential structures for their own survival, through systems like binary gender and the family. This course reviews theories of social reproduction that include ideas from Marxism, feminism, and sociology. This literature is varied, with different perspectives on how the economic and material world relate to ideas like the history of the nuclear family. Marxist theories of social reproduction, for example, examine how the space of the home and the gendering of childcare produces a division of labor that ultimately produces more workers whose labor can be commoditized and exploited for capitalist production. Queer and transgender studies have mounted critiques of social reproduction in recent years that account for racial capitalism in the production of the category of the family as a legal and administrative concept. Taking a geographically and historically comparative approach to theories of social reproduction, the course will expose students to debates on the family from multiple perspectives, while providing a theoretical foundation in feminist, queer and Marxist critique.

Fulfills the theory requirement for WGSS majors.