Abstract:

This talk explores the concept of essential work using a global feminist social reproduction perspective. Based on research conducted in the first phase of the pandemic, it shows that the meaning of essential work in essential work legislations/classifications is more ambiguous and politicised than it may appear and, although it can be used as a basis to reclaim the value of socially reproductive work, its transformative potential hinges on the possibility to encompass the most precarious and transnational dimensions of (re)production. Thus, to mobilise the political potential of essential work a feminist re-definition and re-appropriation is needed.

Speakers:

Dr. Sara Stevano (Senior Lecturer in Economics, SOAS University of London)

Dr. Sara Stevano is a development and feminist political economist. She is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at SOAS University of London, after holding teaching and research positions at the University of the West of England, Bristol, and King’s College London. Her areas of study are the political economy of work, food and nutrition, inequalities and social reproduction. Her work focuses on Africa, with primary research experience in Mozambique and Ghana. Sara is committed to expanding the boundaries of economic research and teaching through interdisciplinary approaches, qualitative methods and micro-macro bridges.

Michal Nahman (Senior Lecturer in Health and Social Sciences, University of West England)

Dr. Michal Nahman is Senior Lecturer in Health and Social Sciences at the University of West England. She is a social scientist who uses the theoretical and methodological tools of sociology, anthropology, feminist science studies to examine closely the political, social and cultural dimensions of biomedicine, reproduction as they relate to race/ism, nationalism and globalisation. More recently her work has examined gendered forms of work, and the colonial dimensions of Global Fertility Chains. Michal Nahman, along with Professor Susan Newman (Open University), and Yuko Edwards, is one of the curators of the “This Is Essential Work” online exhibition and will share research and artwork into the question of essential work from feminist perspectives. 

Selected Artists from the 'This is Essential Work' online art exhibition will join the event.

Related links:

• This Is Essential Work: an online open-access intersectional feminist exhibition
• Stevano, S, Rosimina A., and Jamieson, M., (2021), Essential Work: Using A Social Reproduction Lens to Investigate the Re-Organisation of Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic, SOAS Department of Economics Working Paper, No. 241, London: SOAS University of London.
• Stevano, S, Rosimina A., and Jamieson, M., (2021), Essential for what? A global social reproduction view on the re-organisation of work during the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, Volume 42 (1-2), 
• Newman, S and Nahman, M. (2021), Nurture commodified? An investigation into commercial human milk supply chains, Review of International Political Economy (Early Access).

Joining Information:

Please email Sheila Hobbs for the joining information.