The Arcane of Reproduction Then & Now, with Leopoldina Fortunati

Fri, 6 March 2020

18:00 – 20:00

Priory Road Complex

12 Priory Road

Bristol

BS8 1TU

An event organised with the support of the Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (https://www.seminarct.com), SWDTP, the University of Bristol and the University of Bath.

Main speaker: Leopoldina Fortunati (University of Udine)

Discussant: Katie Cruz (University of Bristol)

What is reproductive labour and why is it important? We will discuss it with Leopoldina Fortunati, one of the founders of social reproduction theory. Fortunati began her activism in the context of workers’ struggles in the 1960s and 1970s in Italy and was a key member of the feminist movement for Wages for Housework (https://www.viewpointmag.com/2013/09/15/learning-to-struggle-my-story-between-workerism-and-feminism/). She then became the author of the classic book “The Arcane of Reproduction: Housework, Prostitution, Labor and Capital” (1981), and – with Silvia Federici – of “Il Grande Calibano: Storia del corpo sociale ribelle nella prima fase del capitale” (1984).