Social reproduction theory and critical state theory after the COVID-19 syndemic

Abstract

This article offers an insight into the challenges social movements face when attempting to politicize the crisis of reproduction which took place during the COVID-19 syndemic in the city of Barcelona. The analysis provided here expands on the study of social reproduction theory and, more broadly, on Marxist feminist approaches. One of the factors accounting for the absence of politicization during the syndemic is the type of responses given to the emergency by the authoritarian neoliberal state, which were beyond those envisaged by the 10th thesis theorized by Marxism-Feminism and social reproduction theory. Thus, in this article, we argue that this situation is an opportunity to establish a dialogue between critical state theory and Marxism-Feminism to understand how the agency of the state may condition the social reproduction of life and block the emancipatory possibilities of care and the social struggles regarding the crisis of care, complementing thus the10th thesis of Marxism-Feminism.