Social reproduction economics—the study of unpaid care, food preparation, affection, and education that sustain daily life—is gaining renewed academic traction as scholars confront deepening global structural inequalities, according to recent discussions at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). According to UNAM postgraduate division head Antonio Ibarra Romero, academic inquiry into feminist economics has seen a growing interest among new generations of researchers seeking tools to analyze contemporary capitalism.
The Crisis of Social Reproduction in Contemporary Capitalism
The concept of social reproduction makes visible the labor and relationships traditionally devalued and unequally distributed across society, according to presentations at an academic meeting organized in collaboration with International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs) and the Feminist Economics Network in Mexico (REFEM). According to researcher Lorena Rodríguez, analyzing social reproduction allows academics to map out the lived experiences driving the current crisis within contemporary capitalism. These analytical frameworks provide critical tools for characterizing structural inequalities that disproportionately affect women, racialized individuals, and historically subordinated groups.
Academic Collaborations and Multidisciplinary Research
The recent colloquium brought together 43 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral participants from 15 academic institutions across Mexico and Brazil, including UNAM, El Colegio de México, the National Polytechnic Institute, the Autonomous Metropolitan University, and the University of São Paulo. According to event organizers, the program featured 12 thematic panels structured around four core axes:
- Body, territory, and extractivism
- Debt, financialization, and social security
- The international division of labor
- Alternatives to the crisis of social reproduction
The event operated under the supervision of María del Rosario Aparicio López, a faculty professor and coordinator of the Gender in Economics Specialization within UNAM’s Postgraduate Economics Program. Funding for the initiative was provided by IDEAs, alongside institutional backing from UNAM’s Postgraduate Studies Division.
Two Decades of Gender in Economics Education
UNAM’s Gender in Economics Specialization has spent two decades training researchers within the university’s Postgraduate Economics Program, cementing its position as a main academic offering in the field nationwide, according to Antonio Ibarra Romero.
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