Towards a critique of care fetishism
Social reproduction feminism and the ethics of care
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4367194 |
|---|---|
| Authors | R Farri (0000-0001-9819-3370, Goldsmiths University of London, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-24 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Feminist Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1464-7001 • E-ISSN: 1741-2773 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/14647001251376299 |
| OpenAlex | W4414457349 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 63 |
Recently, there has been a notable rise in scholarly publications, research projects and public discussions engaging with care ethics and social reproduction feminism. However, despite their shared focus on caring activities, these two feminist traditions diverge significantly in their theoretical foundations and political implications. The primary distinction lies in their conceptualization of care itself: whereas care ethics emphasizes the affective and moral dimensions of caregiving, social reproduction feminism understands care as labour essential to sustaining life and reproducing labour power. In addition, they differ in their interpretations of interdependence - care ethics views it as an inexorable part of the human condition, while social reproduction feminism examines it through the relationship between production and reproduction. This article analyses hitherto under-scrutinized differences between these traditions. More specifically, it brings to the fore misinterpretations of social reproduction feminism by care ethics scholars while addressing underexplored dimensions within social reproduction feminism itself, including the role of affect in care labour, and Marx's concept of social relations of production. Ultimately, the article argues that the ethics of care tends to idealize caring activities as a moral good, detached from social and economic contexts. Using Marx's theory of commodity fetishism, it thus contends that care ethics risks treating care as a fetish, obscuring the systemic inequalities and inherent contradictions embedded in caregiving
Conceptualization · Ethics of care · Feminism · Feminist ethics · Medicalization · Normative ethics · Politics · Reproduction · Social reproduction · Social Policy and Reform Studies
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Racial borderscapes and the ungrounding of migrant life
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The transformative potential of Social and Solidarity Economy in elder care
The wartime care economy
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Servants of Globalization
The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics
Forced to Care
Commonwealth
How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics
Social Reproduction Theory
Migration, Domestic Work and Affect
Karl Marx
The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community
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A Queer Marxist Transfeminism
Feminist Ethics and Social Policy
The Ethics of Care
The ethics of welfare
Social Reproduction Theory and the Socialist Horizon
Corporatisation and financialisation of social reproduction
Maternal Encounters
Migration and Domestic Work
Transgender Marxism
Citizenship and the Ethics of Care
Marxism and the Oppression of Women
Gender and Social Reproduction
Exploring Policy Implications of Ethics of Care and Justice in Care Work and Human Services Organizations
Care ethics and International Relations
From carewashing to radical care
Situating Sexuality in Social Reproduction
An anatomy of carewashing
Market-reach into social reproduction and transnational labour mobility in Europe
Hidden Abodes in Plain Sight
Rethinking Care Through Social Reproduction
Feminist global political economies of work and social reproduction
Towards a feminist political economy of time
Reconciling Equality to Difference
Social reproduction theory revisited
Queering social reproduction
Migrants' Regular Army of Labour
The Concept of Labor
Functionalist, Determinist, Reductionist
Marx’s Theory of Productive and Unproductive Labour
Contradictions of Capital and Care
Vagabond Capitalism and the Necessity of Social Reproduction
In a different voice
Beyond the Global Care Chain
In and beyond New Labour
Social Reproduction Theory
Living environmentalisms
Recognising the Time-Space Dimensions of Care
Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography-The Lives of Others
Capitalism and alienation
Insurgent Social Reproduction
Affective Labor and Feminist Politics
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 7 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |