Defending the indefensible? Culture's role in the productive/unproductive dichotomy

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Defending the indefensible? Culture's role in the productive/unproductive dichotomy

Author Info

David Brennan

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to reveal the justifications for different production boundaries historically. It finds that the boundaries were and are predicated on an untenable productive/unproductive dichotomy that was justified on select and shifting cultural norms. Furthermore, the production boundary informed other categories like labor, capital, income, and wealth. Hence, this article exposes the degree to which economic categories were and are unstable, fragile, contested, and culturally embedded constructs. It then explores feminist-inspired production boundaries based on third-person criterion and finds that these boundaries are likewise culturally contingent. However, these new production boundaries merely do what economics has always attempted to do, which is to theorize production under different cultural circumstances. This article reaffirms the mutually constitutive role of culture and economic categories.

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Publisher Info
Article provided by Taylor and Francis Journals in its journal Feminist Economics.

Volume (Year): 12 (2006)
Issue (Month): 3 (July)
Pages: 403-425
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Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:12:y:2006:i:3:p:403-425

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

Stigler, George J, 1976. "The Successes and Failures of Professor Smith," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(6), pages 1199-1213, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Duncan Ironmonger, 1996. "Counting outputs, capital inputs and caring labor: Estimating gross household product," Feminist Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 2(3), pages 37-64, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Susan Himmelweit, 1995. "The discovery of "unpaid work": the social consequences of the expansion of "work"," Feminist Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 1(2), pages 1-19, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Susan Himmelweit, 1995. "The Discovery of 'Unpaid Work': the social consequences of the expansion of 'work'," Open Discussion Papers in Economics 6, The Open University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Economics.

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This page was last updated on 2009-12-5.

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