Synopsis

This is a special issue of Women's Studies International Forum that aims to bring a spatial analysis to social reproduction processes. The introduction outlines in broad brushstrokes the contours of recent feminist literature on social reproduction. It does so firstly in relation to the tradition of feminist political economy (FPE), secondly in relation to anti-racist feminisms, and thirdly in relation to feminist geography. We locate our own work on social reproduction at the junction of these three conceptual lineages, drawing particular insight from the important 2004 text edited by feminist geographers Katharyne Mitchell, Sallie A. Marston, and Cindi Katz, Life's Work: Geographies of Social Reproduction. Our central goal is to extend the debates initiated in Life's Work by drawing attention to relevant scholarship that preceded the publication of that text and specifically to research that originated outside of the U.S.