Social Reproduction Theory, the ‘Care’ Economy, and the Specter of Disability: A Critique

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While the recent explosion of literature on social reproduction and caring across heterodox economic schools of thought and other social sciences has shed light on the gendered and racialized work that often goes unpaid and unrecognized in capitalist society, it has failed to engage with the non-working, non-productive disabled people receiving such ‘care’. Relying on theoretical contributions from Disability Studies, Marxian political economy, and Autonomist and Marxist-Feminist traditions, I show that ‘care’ of this segment of the disabled reproduces neither labor-power, nor productive workers. Looking at the case of the U.S. nursing home industry, I argue that ‘care’ work is not designed to reproduce the life of this population, but rather to limit the reproduction of disabled life through the intentional limitation of their means of consumption—a process regulated by the capitalist state. Both the restriction of the means of consumption (including of care) of the disabled, as well as the super-exploitation of care workers are mechanisms, then, to limit the reproduction of disabled life.