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“Caliban, social reproduction and our future yet to come” in Geoforum 118 (4), 150-158

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“Caliban, social reproduction and our future yet to come” in Geoforum 118 (4), 150-158

What can historical and contemporary labour geographies from the Caribbean tell us about social reproduction in a world of automation, precarity and free market fundamentalism? I argue in this article that juxtaposing 18th–19th century Caribbean labour geographies, with the free-market fundamentalisms, labour eradicating technologies and environmental disasters that define 21st century labour struggles, offers ways of thinking about how lives are made within capitalist systems, that overcome the traditional separation of the productive and reproductive work required to do so. Juxtaposing the social infrastructures that emerged from the practices of early unfree workers in the Caribbean with those produced by low income communities today, I trace continuities in the ways that people in situations of extreme precarity engage with space in order to exercise control over their labour. This article offers a number of provocations that aim to unsettle the theoretical separation of social reproduction from economic production, introduce insights into labour geographies beyond the worlds of formal organized labour and the formal economy itself, and to situate the Caribbean as a space of theory making that offers lessons for futures yet to come.

About the Author

Beverley Mullings is a professor and Associate Undergraduate Program Head in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University. Her research focuses on feminist political economy, social transformation, labour, neoliberalism, and intersectionality in the Caribbean and the diaspora.

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