The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust various forms of social reproductive labour – and the process of social reproduction itself – into the centre of policy and public attention. Most obviously, the pandemic has put an enormous strain on the delivery of institutionalized (health, extended) care, in many cases exposing its frailty (in light of long-term resource erosion and privatization) while demanding ‘heroic’ labour to continue under the emergency conditions. Similar demands have been placed on the (often precarious) workers
engaged in the delivery of various forms of essential provisioning and life sustaining services (including retail, cleaning, food provision, sex work, etc.). Workers in some forms of feminised work, such as sex work, have been particularly vulnerable to the structural exclusion of their work from emergency financial help for workers. At the same time, through the inadequacy of health care coverage coupled with the suspension/interruption of formal (public and private) care child, additional care work has been thrust upon those - disproportionately women - who are providing paid or unpaid care work within the home, further exacerbating the crisis of care.

While the realities of life in the times of COVID-19 have drawn attention to the need to recognize, accommodate and better value social reproductive labour, there are many signs that the pandemic is reproducing and exacerbating old inequalities in social reproduction’s organization. Inequalities based on the intersections of gender, race, class, migrant status, for instance, have been particularly evident in how the pandemic and institutional responses adopted to address if have affected communities and individuals.

Chairs:
Inga Thiemann and
Ania Zbyszewska

SPEAKERS
Joanne Conaghan, University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Lydia Hayes, Kent University, United Kingdom

Ruth Olate, Confederación Latinoamericana y del Caribe Trabajadoras del Hogar - Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Domestic Workers, Chile

Natalia Sedacca, University College London, United Kingdom

REGISTRATION
All online seminars are organised on Zoom. To register and participate in the 15
June, 11.oo (EST)/17.oo (CET) seminar please click on the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIud--sqD4sH9cIvcbMXclnXhL9tub...

When you access the online seminar, please, make sure your full name appears on your Zoom connection to facilitate interaction and the Q&A. Seminars will also be live streamed on the MLC’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheMovingLabourCollective/