Intersectional Political Economy: Reimagining Inequality, Social Reproduction, and Global Cooperation

Nancy Folbre, Professor Emerita of Economics, discusses the evolution of class definitions and the necessity of an intersectional approach to political economy. She argues that traditional definitions of class, focused solely on the means of production, are insufficient to capture the complex, hierarchical inequalities experienced by different social groups. Folbre proposes an analogy where gender relates to the means of reproduction and race/ethnicity to cultural identity and resource distribution, highlighting the parallels and overlaps between these forms of group inequality. She asserts that economic exploitation and social/political oppression are not false binaries but intertwined elements of almost all forms of inequality, stemming from differences in bargaining power based on group membership.\n\nThe podcast delves into the political origins of intersectionality, noting how feminist economics was compelled to address its historical inattention to racial and ethnic differences. This led to a rethinking of how various forms of inequality are implicitly ranked, with black feminism and feminism from the global South playing a crucial role in developing the intersectional vision. Folbre critiques classical political economy for its failure to account for \"social reproduction\" – the time, effort, money, and emotional energy required to create and develop human capabilities, treating labor as a given rather than a produced asset. This oversight, she argues, contributes to major crises like global climate change and social inequality.\n\nFolbre emphasizes that the single-minded pursuit of self-interest is a "recipe for extinction," particularly when dealing with coordination problems involving public goods (like the environment) and intergenerational relations, where traditional market exchange mechanisms fail. She highlights that much of our measurable market success has come at the expense of unpriced natural and social assets, creating a paradox where abundance is purchased at a high, unsustainable price. Addressing these global challenges requires cooperation and a re-evaluation of our relationship with both the natural and social worlds.\n\nFinally, the discussion explores why hierarchies persist, even in the face of widespread inequality. Folbre explains that society is characterized by complicated, overlapping hierarchies where individuals often find themselves in contradictory positions – simultaneously exploited and privileged. This complexity, coupled with human loss aversion (the tendency to fear losing what one has more than desiring what one doesn't), contributes to "status quo inertia" and complacency. Building effective coalitions for political change, therefore, requires uniting people around a vision that significantly improves their well-being along a crucial dimension of their identity, recognizing that the mobilizing force for change can vary across different contexts and issues.

"oh I'm exploited as a worker but I'm a citizen of the richest country in the world or you know I'm disadvantaged as a woman but I'm white and that gives me access to some opportunities that other people don't have"

"I think originally it was defined as a relationship to the means of production like owners versus workers but there's kind of an analogy between that definition of class and some definitions of other socially assigned groups that have experienced pretty hierarchical inequalities"

"almost all forms of inequality have an element of exploitation and almost all forms of inequality perform kind of of Oppression and it's usually related to differences in bargaining power based on group membership"

"the word intersectionality and the kind of intersectional vision was really kind of the outgrowth of black feminism and feminism from the global South"

"in the classical political economy world everything is produced by labor except labor"

"our economic system literally created incentives uh to over exploit natural resources and to over um pollute uh the natural environment in ways that actually uh May well be leading to long-term economic crisis"

"the single-minded pursuit of self-interest is pretty much a recipe for extinction"

"we live in this world of very complicated overlapping hierarchies in which almost everybody is in a somewhat contradictory position"

"we all are very loss averse it's it's more painful to us to have something taken away from us than not to get something that we don't yet have"

"intersectionality helps explain a lot of status quo a lot of status quo inertia and let us status quo complacency"