CONTRIBUTIONS OF SOCIAL REPRODUCTION THEORY TO THE CONTEMPORARY DEBATE ON OPPRESSIONS

Abstract

This article presents a brief reconstruction of Social Reproduction Theory (SRT) history and of what I consider its main contributions to the contemporary debate on multiple relations of oppression – such as gender, race and class – in capitalism. Although the Feminist-Marxist perspective of social reproduction has an older history, by SRT we understand the new field of dialogue led by Tithi Bhattacharya, and by the authors who subscribe to the internationalist manifesto Feminism for the 99%, published in Brazil in March 2019. This is one of the most pulsating and critical sectors of the worldwide feminist movement and aims to develop a unitary understanding of the relations of oppression, exploitation and alienation that make up social reality in the world in which we live. Such an understanding has at its centre a return to the notion of social totality as developed by Karl Marx on his Grundrisse.