Feminist Political Economy Frameworks
Paper Session
Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM (CST)
- Chair: Duc Hien Nguyen, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Building Reproductive Justice as a Research Program in Economics
Abstract
The concept of reproductive justice was first developed by organized women of color in the United States in the late 90s and gained increased relevance in academia and grassroots movements worldwide, but a clear framework on how to approach reproductive justice within economics is not yet developed. This paper aims to start that theoretical discussion. We provide an overview of the reproductive justice framework and advocate for its adoption as a Lakatosian research program in economics, proposing one hardcore and four softcore hypotheses. To develop a proper method capable of investigating those hypotheses simultaneously, we propose a synthesis among elements of analysis advanced within development, feminist, and stratification economics. We provide a selected historical example to apply the framework, illuminating how it advances economists’ understanding and evaluation of reproductive policies and their consequences in diverse scenarios, and discuss the relevance and possible tensions of such applications in future analyses.Emancipating Women in Jordan via an Integral Framework for a Regeneration Ecofeminist Economy: The Case of Economic and Societal Renewal
Abstract
Integral Framework for a Regenerative Eco-feminist Economy (IFREE) Model This conference paper discusses the co-creation of an ecofeminist economic model in Jordan as a case for societal renewal. The Integral Framework for a Regenerative Eco-feminist Economy (IFREE) was the efforts of a researcher and a local community in the Southern Shouneh area of the Dead Sea in Jordan working together as co-researchers and co-creators based on the feminist research tenets that put the researcher and community members at equal footing. The paper begins with a review of the restrictions on women’s economic participation in Jordan. It moves on to highlight the conceptual framework and overview of the IFREE model. It furthermore explains the key concepts and principles of the model. It then discusses the research methodology that was employed which is the Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) in data gathering, analysis and critical decisions in co-creating the IFREE model. Finally, the paper highlights the limitations and assumptions of the framework with recommendations for the evolution of the IFREE model.Gendering Displacement: Women’s Workforce Participation in the Aftermath of Forced Eviction
Abstract
The relentless drive to demolish slums and redevelop freed-up lands into more “productive” uses constitutes a salient feature of the contemporary urban process in Indian cities. Policy makers claim that the relocation of poor and vulnerable families from “illegal” settlements (slums) to formally recognized localities (resettlement colonies – RCs) would arrest multi-dimensional urban problems of poor-quality housing, unemployment, and segregation for those families. But critical scholarship examining the demolition-relocation policy’s impact at the level of families casts doubts on its distributional rhetoric, especially given the fact that such colonies have been established in far-off rural-urban fringes. Families, however, are not a unitary entity whose members are affected by relocation in the exact same ways. Motivated by feminist literatures that problematize the family as a locus of both cooperation and conflict and displacement as a gendered process, this paper examines the effects of forced displacement on women’s unpaid and paid work burden in India’s capital city. It asks how eviction from central city areas and relocation to underdeveloped peripheries alter the conditions for care provision and the nature of livelihood opportunities for the resettled women, and, in turn, their labor force participation rate.JEL Classifications
- J1 - Demographic Economics
- B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches