Unidade, diversidade, totalidade: a Teoria da Reprodução Social e seus contrastes

Abstract

Resulting of wide-ranging debates that flourished after the 1968 upheavals, the Social Reproduction Theory (SRT) renewal in the 21st century translates a theoretical and political reaction of critical intellectuals and activists to the three decades of neoliberal restructuring. The reinforcement of the structural crisis triggered since 2007-2008, expands through the intensification of the expropriation forms and deteriorating workers living conditions. An awakening of authoritarianism on a global scale also marks the present conjuncture. Overcoming it depends on the reconstruction of concrete alternatives of emancipation and transnational bridges of solidarity. This implies a reformulation of the notion of the working class and the material mechanisms that would enable union - without subsuming or hierarchizing their race, gender or sexuality particularities. Thus, Marxist-feminists of social reproduction theory seek to understand these relations as moments of a complex social totality. In unveiling the unpaid forms of labour that constitute the female experience, they seek a unitary understanding of the human condition under capitalism. What contradictions constitute capitalism and, therefore, must be considered in its overcoming? TRS still an unexplored field by Brazilian public. Therefore, the aim of this dissertation is to contribute to the introduction of this debate in Brazil. I propose a critical reconstruction of the unitary theory elaborated by Lise Vogel and the contemporary contributions to its development. This reconstruction involves a fundamental discussion about the building of a unitary theory in the light of the Marxian notion of social totality. To contribute to this debate, I present other theories that have thrown themselves into the challenge of producing a unitary analysis of oppression and production relations under capitalism, such as David Roediger's analysis of race and class relations and Angela Davis' Black and anticolonial Marxist feminism. It is an initial and non-exhaustive effort to map, translate, systematize and discuss SRT and the current debates around it.