Social Reproduction

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Sociology 304

Notes for February 24, 1998

Social Reproduction

The first part of the February 24 notes contain a discussion of the costs of social reproduction

from the discussion questions distributed on February 10. Following that are notes on production

and social reproduction.

I !osts of Social Reproduction

The following notes are based on the discussion questions for week of February 10.

" !osts. What are the costs of caring for the kids and more generally the costs of socialreproduction! The costs may be actual monetary costs they may be opportunities foregone or

they may be e"penditures of time and energy. They may be at the le#el of the indi#idual family

group social institution or society as a whole.

1 #onetary$ food clothing day care education health recreation housing.

2 $pportunities foregone$ These are the economists% opportunity costs.

a S%ort ter& costs$ Tra#el leisure recreation lu"uries indi#idual choices.

b 'ong ter& costs$ &areer 'ob opportunities 'ob ad#ancement cost of women not in work

force.

c (i&e issues$ Time with others peers partner social life. (ersonal time pri#acy. )ducational

opportunities restricted.

Note on $pportunity !osts. *n economics opportunity costs are the result of scarcity or the

fact that choices must be made within the conte"t of scarcity.

+ipsey &ourant and (ur#is ,p. 4- define the opportunity cost of using resources for a certain

purpose as the benefit gi#en up by not using them in an alternati#e way that is it is the costmeasured in terms of other commodities that could ha#e been obtained instead. They conclude

that /)#ery time a choice must be made opportunity costs are incurred/ ,p. -. This is a #ery


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basic concept of neoclassical economics that choices within the conte"t of scarcity imply

opportunity costs.

$pportunity !osts in Sociology. While we sometimes discuss choices or opportunitiesforegone this seems a less central concern than in economics. (erhaps this is because$

1. ociology is not so concerned with costs and may not be so concerned with scarcity.

)conomic models may assume full employment so that one result cannot be achie#ed

without gi#ing up something else.

2. tructures may be #ery constraining and imply limited choices so that there are fewalternati#es.

3. ociology may be concerned with choices that are possibly e"pansi#e interaction

collecti#e action. a#ing children presents many rewards and other opportunities. Focus

on both the patterns and structures of opportunities and constraints and the consequences

of choices made may be a useful approach from Folbre so that sociologists should paymore attention to opportunity costs.

$t%er !osts

• Time and energy 24 hours a day 5 days a week for rest of life super#ision.

• tress emotional costs meetings appointments recreation for children.

• 6ther social attitudes women ostraci7ed negati#e attitudes of employers.

• &osts to marital relationship

These latter costs are e#en less quantifiable. 8ote though that these form a basic part of Folbre%sarguments. he tends to introduce these through her emphasis on norms and preferences and the

forms of appro#al and disappro#al that go along with those. These are often #ery constraining so

that people who follow the ordinary patterns may not always be all that aware of these.

*n addition sociologists may be less concerned with the process of choice. That is the models ofeconomists concentrate on the choices made seeming to imply that e#eryday life is concerned

with continually making these choices in a well thought out and rational manner with the

indi#idual attempting to ma"imi7e his or her satisfaction or utility. *n fact the choices may be

more implicit and less calculated than implied in economic models and the process of choicemay be relati#ely infrequent and go#erned more by norms and preferences than is implied by

many economic models.

) *%o +ays !osts Who pays for these costs! What is the usual situation and what are some of the different patterns! These may be quite #aried within and across societies. ).g. indi#idual

family ,and distribution within family- ta"payers.


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8ote$ much of the following will form the basis for discussions throughout the book. There is

considerable #ariation in who pays the costs indi#idual choices norms patterns and also

depending on the type of cost.

• )#eryone.

• (arents. 9ain responsibility. &lothing food etc. :alancing act.

• 9ale;female di#ision within families. *ndi#idual choice.

• 9other. Time during pregnancy parttime work mental strain daily menial tasks

emotional costs career social attitudes.

• Father. Traditionally responsible for financial costs.

• )"tended family opportunities foregone.

• &hildren and siblings de#elopmental and time costs.

• Teachers coaches peers media.

• istribution of this may differconsiderably across indi#iduals and families in society.

• &hild de#elopmental problems and disabilities who pays!

• =limony and child support.

• ?emuneration for household labour.

• &hild po#erty day care education state should help. *mpro#e accessibility.

• *mpro#ed opportunities for single parents education career.


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• *mpro#ed employment opportunities for parents reduce penalties of child

responsibilities.

• +ost time with children due to careers and work. &hild de#elopmental problems.

• ?econsider who should pay costs.

• 9ore indi#iduals should be in#ol#ed in helping raise kids.

8ote that while some of these are ultimately paid by some in society others are opportunities and

potential that may be missed entirely. ome in#ol#e changes in systems of ta"ation orgo#ernment programs and others in#ol#e the changes in the norms and preferences which would

lead to different patterns and structures. ome might require e#en more radical changes in the

structures of society. These may also differ considerably by social class ethnicity and society.

II Notes on +roduction and Reproduction.

" Introduction

*n Who Pays for the Kids? Folbre approaches many of the issues by focusing on the costs of

social reproduction. These are /the costs of caring for oursel#es our children and other

dependents/ ,p. 1- and

They include direct e"penditures on behalf of dependents such as children the sick the disabledand the elderly. They also include the costs of time de#oted to the care of these indi#iduals and

to the daily maintenance of adults. ,p. 3-.

For indi#iduals and the family these include the direct costs of children the time spent caring for

children the costs of education and the other costs of raising children. 6n a larger scale costs of social reproduction also include the costs of maintaining the stock of -no.ledge and abilities of

society although these can also be thought of as part of economic reproduction. The costs of

maintaining p%ysical infrastructure and the en/iron&ent are also related to social

reproduction but these might be more properly considered to be the costs of economicreproduction.

While we talk about these costs in sociology when looking at the structure of the family

sociali7ation or education we do not usually try to define these #ery carefully or to quantifythem perhaps they are not always quantifiable. 6r sociologists may not think of these as costs

considering them instead as ways in which family members act and interact. )conomics has only

partially dealt with these costs tending to concentrate its study more on commodities which are

bought and sold often ignoring those human resources goods and ser#ices which do not enterthe market. The latter is true of bot% neoclassical economics and 9ar"ist political economy.

:oth of those approaches pro#ide well de#eloped theories of costs of production but tend to

ignore many of the costs of social reproduction.


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*n contrast Folbre centres her analysis on social reproduction the total costs of this and how

these costs are distributed. he questions whether society puts adequate resources into social

reproduction discusses how decisions are made concerning this and e"amines some of theindi#idual and collecti#e ways in which indi#iduals households and society deal with these

decisions.

) #eaning of Social Reproduction

?eproduction is used in a number of ways in sociology. *n each of the uses it means thereplacement of people or structures with a new set similar to the original such that the social

system can continue. = basic definition of reproduction is /producing again/ or /making a copy./

?eproduction in the Oxford English Dictionary is the /=ction or process of forming creating or bringing into e"istence again./

While reproduction may mean copying what e"isted in the past this is unlikely to occur in any

e"act manner for societies as a whole. There are always changed en#ironmental social and

economic conditions along with new technologies and processes. 6#er time there are newindi#iduals who ha#e different characteristics these indi#iduals relate to others in new and

different ways. &onsider for e"ample integration of newcomers to a country as a two way

process in#ol#ing adaptation of the newcomers to the country but also meaning changes in

social structure as these newcomers integrate. Where reproduction of social processes structuresinstitutions and social relationships is in#ol#ed reproduction of the society can e#en be

problematic. There are also economic and political processes in#ol#ed and reproduction of

society especially in the contemporary era likely in#ol#es considerable change in thestructures institutions and social relationships of society.

1 )iological Reproduction. ?eproduction can refer to the specifically biological processes of

reproduction conception to childbirth. This is biological reproduction and in#ol#es issuesrelated to reproducti#e beha#iour patterns of se"ual relationships family structures biologicalabilities or inabilities ,fecundity and sterility- contracepti#e practices abortion infanticide and

the health of mothers children and families. ?eproducti#e technologies and practices are

important in this conte"t. While this is a most basic part of social reproduction much more isimplied by the latter term.

2 enerational Reproduction. ?eproduction may refer specifically to the ways in which the

human population is replaced each generation. That is each indi#idual family or group is mortal

and must replace itself with new human beings. *n this case reproduction refers to biologicalreproduction ,the process of bearing children- along with raising training and educating

children what sociologists refer to as the sociali7ation process. This may be referred to as

generational reproduction.

Further along and at the other end of the age spectrum generational reproduction can also beconsidered to in#ol#e support for disabled people and indi#iduals who are past working age.

(ensions sa#ings retirement income along with care for the elderly the disabled and other

dependents can all be included. The e"tent to which such support is a#ailable and the manner inwhich support is organi7ed is related to the larger social and economic structures. *n


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contemporary society especially important for the elderly and the disabled is the nature of the

health care system.

3 aily Reproduction. ?eproduction is sometimes e"amined on a short term basis to includethe daily weekly or annual process of sur#i#al and maintenance of life. These processes could

include the daily family or household based acti#ities such as sleeping and eating to maintainhealth and daily life. This can be referred to as the process of daily reproduction. That is each

indi#idual is in#ol#ed in sets of daily acti#ities that maintain the indi#idual in conditions of physical and mental health that allow the indi#idual to carry on with normal acti#ities again the

ne"t day.

4 Reproduction of Social Structures and Relations. =nother sense of the term refers to the

reproduction of t%e .%ole society and the social structures and social relations%ips that

characteri7e that society. *n contemporary social theory this is associated with critical t%eory

,abermas% reproduction of system and life world- or structuration t%eory ,


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owe#er in Who Pays for the Kids? Folbre does not appear to be concerned specifically with the

9ar"ian or economic use of reproduction as noted in item .

! +roduction and Reproduction

8ote that Folbre contrasts production as such with social reproduction. (roduction generallyrefers to the production of goods and ser#ices as co&&odities ,or possibly as public goods such

as roads or telecommunications infrastructure- in the econo&y. =t the national le#el this is

measured by the


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With the de#elopment of modern urban industrial capitalist forms of social organi7ation the

public and pri#ate sectors increasingly became separated with much of the production of goods

and ser#ices taking place in the public economy outside the household. *n contrast many of thetasks associated with social reproduction continued to be carried out pri#ately in the household.

=s moderni7ation proceeded this di#ision continued to de#elop. >e#elopments in socialist

countries followed a similar path perhaps with more of the tasks associated with socialreproduction taking place in the public sphere than has been the case in capitalist industrial

societies.

The study of economics and sociology initially concentrated on what was carried out in the

public sphere as nineteenth century social scientists defined much of what was carried out in thehousehold as natural and not really part of society. *n contemporary society this di#ision

between public and pri#ate has taken on new forms with some parts of social reproduction

mo#ing into the public sphere ,e.g. education and health care-. =t the same time families andhouseholds continue to ha#e responsibility for many aspects of social reproduction. ocial

science has also changed with authors such as Folbre de#eloping an social and economic

analysis that takes into account both pri#ate and public issues.

Su&&ary. When discussing social reproduction Folbre appears to be primarily concerned withthe bearing, raising, sociali6ation and education of c%ildren as well as care for other

dependents in the population ,disabled sick elderly-. +roduction refers the organi7ation of

production of goods and ser#ices through the market or through the public sector. 6ne of thearguments of Who Pays for the Kids? is ,i- that social analysis should consider both of these and

,ii- social organi7ation should change to ensure that social reproduction is adequately structured

and organi7ed and ,iii- that the costs associated with social reproduction are equitably

distributed among members of society.

References

. (ur#is Microeconomics eighth &anadianedition 8ew Dork arper&ollins 1@@4.

Tro#ato Frank and &arl

Social Reproduction

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