My theoretical approach takes on a Marxist-feminist perspective on everyday life under capitalism in countries that used to be socialist. If an economy is dependent on workers’ labour, who then produces the worker? We all know, although many of us tend to forget, that social reproduction never stops. People of all classes, genders and racial backgrounds need to be fed, schooled, nurtured, washed and dressed on a daily basis, whether they are children, working age adults or elderly. Who does this work for all of us? Is it the state, the market, family, or gendered individuals? How have these roles shifted since the end of socialism and withdrawal of the state from the provision of social reproduction related services within the post-socialist space? How have transnationalisation of markets and proliferation of migrant-based systems of care in advanced capitalist economies affected care relations in the post-socialist periphery? Which of these processes have exploited us, and which have empowered us? Who are we referring to when we say “we”? Are we all the same?

As I explore these questions, I will discuss structural factors that reproduce inequalities between productive and reproductive labour at the global scale. I will speak truth to power, if you will. But by highlighting the ambivalences of our everyday existence, I will also do something else. I will delve into the interpersonal politics of our own conflicting economic and care needs which often reproduce existing power relations. My aim is to push us beyond a social critique of what we know about capitalism as an external force that makes us feel helpless, and our nostalgia for a more secure (socialist) past. I want us to also visit the unknown and uncomfortable space of imagining political and social coalitions that would allow us all to hold more collective space for social reproduction.

Bio

Sonja Avlijaš holds a PhD in political economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Since 2020, she has been a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the University of Belgrade‘s Faculty of Economics, financed by a Horizon 2020 grant from the European Commission. She is also associate researcher at the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies (LIEPP) at Sciences Po in Paris. Between January and April 2022, Dr Avlijaš has held the Wayne Vuchinich Fellowship at Stanford University in California. Dr Avlijaš is a member of the Executive Board of the European Association for Comparative Economic Studies (EACES), following her receipt of the 2018 EACES PhD Thesis Award for the best doctoral dissertation. She is the author of numerous scientific papers and publications focussing on labour markets, welfare states, social reproduction and the post-socialist semiperiphery. For her book “Women and Work: Towards a Political Economy of Transition”, published by Akademska Knjiga (Novi Sad), she received the „Anđelka Milić” Prize in 2018.