Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism

A powerful critique of the care economy, from its roots in racial capitalism to its explosion during the neoliberal era--and a call for alternative visions for a caring society. Since the earliest days of the pandemic, care work has been thrust into the national spotlight. But as Premilla Nadasen argues in Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, we have only begun to understand the massive role the labor of social reproduction plays in our lives and our economy. Drawing on the stories of domestic workers, nurses, and other care workers past and present, Nadasen traces the rise of the care economy, from its roots in slavery, where there was no clear division between production and social reproduction for Black and brown people, to the present care crisis, experienced acutely by more and more Americans. In the neoliberal era, Nadasen shows, we've seen the expansion of a new stage of capitalism. Today's care economy is an institutionalized, hierarchical system in which some people's pain translates into other people's profit. But this is also a story of resistance. Low-wage workers and women of color in movements from Wages for Housework and Welfare Rights to the Movement for Black Lives have continued to fight for and practice collective care. These groups help us envision how, given the challenges before us, we can create a caring world as part of a radical future.

• | Author: Premilla Nadasen
• | Publisher: Haymarket Books
• | Publication Date: Oct 10, 2023
• | Number of Pages: 288 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1642599662
• | ISBN-13: 9781642599664