The commodification of social reproduction: A view of global care chains from a migrant-sending country

Abstract

What is driving the commodification of social reproduction in Ghana? Perhaps it is a natural consequence of the expansion of a powerful capitalist system into even more areas of the life world, as work on global capitalism suggests. Perhaps it is due to female international migration, creating care deficits in the country of origin, as the theory of global care chains suggests. This article shows that commodification is driven not only by transnational migration, but is also a response to local social conditions and historical traditions of care, such that the expansion of capitalism is not a natural force, but becomes naturalised and normalised through local adaptations. Although urban and international migration play a role, so too do changes in women’s ability to balance their individual advancement with care labour, changes in the meaning and practices of kinship, and long-standing histories of informal recruitment of labour into households that can easily become more commodified. This article examines the commodification of social reproduction and the effects of such commodification, phenomena which are not always seen as requiring explanation because of the linear narratives of ever-expanding capitalism and the changes wrought by modernization.