The Capitalist Trajectory
Channel: Havens Wright Center for Social Justice
Date: 2022-09-25

A lecture by Nancy Folbre exploring how feminist theory might help us to understand the trajectory of what she calls patriarchal capitalism. For Folbre, neoclassical economic theory is too market-centric and Marxian economic theory is too capitalism-centric to adequately provide a theory of how the global economic system is evolving. Neither pays attention to social organization of care, and Folbre contends that collective conflict over the distribution of the cost of care of dependents must also be considered.

This visit is part of an eight part series titled “RENEWING SOCIALISM FOR THE 21st CENTURY: ALTERNATIVES TO CAPITALISM AND HOW TO GET THERE”.

Nancy Folbre is Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research explores the interface between political economy and feminist theory, with a particular emphasis on the value of unpaid care work. In addition to numerous articles published in academic journals, she is the author of Greed, Lust, and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas (Oxford, 2009), Valuing Children: Rethinking the Economics of the Family (Harvard, 2009), Who Pays for the Kids?: Gender and the Structures of Constraint (Routledge, 1994) and co-editor, with Michael Bittman, of Family Time: The Social Organization of Care (Routledge, 2004). Books she has written for a wider audience include Saving State U (New Press, 2010); The Field Guide to the U.S. Economy (with James Heintz and Jonathan Teller-Elsberg, New Press, 2006 and earlier editions), The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values (New Press, 2001), and The War on the Poor: A Defense Manual (with Randy Albelda, New Press, 1996). She currently coordinates a working group on care work sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation. You can read her regular contribution to the New York Times Economix Blog at http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/author/nancy-folbre/