Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism

The care economy has grown exponentially as a new site of profit and extraction, but it is also a story of resistance. Low-wage workers, immigrants, and women of color have fought for collective care and helped us envision a caring world as part of a radical future.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 10 October 2023
Publisher: Haymarket Books

An in-depth exploration of the care economy, encompassing its historical roots in racial capitalism and its explosive expansion as a novel realm of profit and exploitation.

Since the onset of the pandemic, care work has gained unprecedented prominence in the national discourse. The concept of care appears deceptively straightforward. Care entails nurturing, feeding, nursing, assisting, and loving fellow human beings. It is often hailed as the foundation upon which all other forms of work rest. However, as historian Premilla Nadasen argues, our understanding of the profound impact of care in our lives and economy remains in its infancy.

Nadasen meticulously traces the evolution of the care economy, from its origins in slavery, where the boundaries between production and social reproduction were blurred, to the present-day care crisis, disproportionately affecting a growing number of Americans. In the contemporary care economy, Nadasen reveals, there exists an institutionalized, hierarchical system wherein the pain and suffering of certain individuals are translated into financial gain for others.

Despite this bleak reality, the care economy is also a testament to resilience and collective action. Low-wage workers, immigrants, and women of color, through movements such as Wages for Housework and Welfare Rights, and the Movement for Black Lives, have persistently fought for and practiced collective care. These groups serve as a powerful vision of how, in the face of formidable challenges, we can strive to create a caring world as an integral part of a radical future.

Dimension: 215 x 139 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781642599664