The Political Economy of Reproduction: Motherhood, Work and the Home in Neoliberal Britain

This thesis investigates how the processes and practices of reproduction have been transformed not only by the ascendant political rationality of neoliberalism but also by women’s struggles that have reconfigured motherhood, the domestic home and the gendered organisation of employment. Through exploring both the 1970s feminist demand for “free 24- hour nurseries” and the contemporary provision of extended, overnight and flexible childcare, care that is often referred to as “24-hour childcare”, the research contributes to feminist understandings of the gendered and racialised class dynamics inside and outside the home and the wage. The research repositions the ‘Woman Question’ as, yet again unavoidable and necessary for comprehending and intervening in the brutalising consequences of capitalist accumulation. Situated within the Marxist feminist tradition, the work of reproduction is understood as a cluster of tasks, affective relations and employment that have historically been constructed and experienced as ‘women’s work’. The interrelation between the subjectivity of motherhood and the political economy of reproduction is analysed through a feminist genealogy of 24-hour childcare in Britain. Using ethnographic encounters, archival research and interview data with mothers and childcare workers, the research tells a story about the women who have worked both inside and outside the home, raised children, cooked and cleaned, and who, both historically and in the present, continue to create an immense amount of wealth and value. As women's labour market participation has steadily increased over the last 40 years, the discourse of reproduction has shifted to one in which motherhood is increasingly constructed as a choice. Within neoliberal discourse the decision to have a child is constructed as a private matter for which individuals bear the costs and responsibility. The thesis argues that, as a result of motherhood being constructed more and more as something that is chosen, the spaces of resistance and opposition towards motherhood have been limited and resistance has been individuated and privatised.

The work of memory: embodiment, materiality and home in Jeanne Bouvier’s autobiographical writings

In this paper I follow trails in the memory of work by reading the books and papers of Jeanne Bouvier, a French seamstress, ardent trade-unionist and passionate writer, who left a rich body of labour literature including four published historical studies, as well as the memoirs of her life, work and struggles. Work, action and creativity are three interrelated planes on which Bouvier situates herself, while memory and imagination are interwoven in the way she seeks to understand herself in the world with others. What emerges as a particularly striking theme from Bouvier’s papers is a material matrix of mnemonic and imaginary practices, wherein bodies, places and objects are entangled in the narrative constitution of the self of the woman worker/writer.

‘Running with the Fox and Hunting with the Hounds’: Social Work Tutors' Experiences of Managing Failing Social Work Students in Practice Learning Settings

The paper explores the issues raised by social work students failing in practice learning settings from the perspective of university tutors, by drawing on existing literature in this area from social work and nursing, as well as findings from a small‐scale empirical qualitative study. The qualitative study was influenced by practitioner‐researcher and practice‐near paradigms; and is based on interviews with twelve social work tutors in England. The findings reveal that tutors are able to articulate the important tasks and functions of their roles when issues of failing students in practice learning settings arise, although the process can be challenging. The challenges include: supporting practice educator and student, concerns about other tutors’ practices, the difficulties in promoting appropriate professional standards and values within higher education contexts and frustrations with practice educators and placements. Only a third of the respondents (four) however, articulated their gate keeping roles and responsibilities although this was not without its difficulties. Given the current reforms in social work education in England at this present time, with greater emphasis on threshold standards at entry level, and at key stages throughout the programme of study, the research is timely in terms of the critical consideration of the tutor role and challenges inherent in promoting appropriate standards.

‘Disability and HIV in Africa: Breaking the barriers to sexual health care’

Three decades in to the HIV pandemic, the issues affecting people with disabilities remains less known. Increasing attention has been given to this overlooked population when it comes to HIV prevention, treatment and care. This is related to the significant unmet sexual and reproductive health care needs facing people with disabilities worldwide. This article discusses the barriers to sexual health for people with disabilities in Africa, and presents an argument about how mainstream HIV prevention work and research does not adequately attend to the sorts of systemic barriers that exclude people with disabilities, which a more targeted, and critical approach could.

Somatic pedagogies: Critiquing and resisting the affective discourse of the neoliberal state from an embodied anarchist perspective.

This paper takes as its context widespread feelings of anxiety within neoliberal society caused by a combination of material and discursive factors including precarious access to work and resources. It is argued that the state uses ‘discourses of affect’ to produce compliant subjects able to deal with (and unable to desire beyond) neoliberal precarity and anxiety. Critical education theorists have argued that discourses of ‘well-being’, emotional support and self-help have gained increasing purchase in mainstream education and in popular culture. These discourses are dangerous because they are individualized and depoliticized, and undermine collective political struggle. At the same time there has been a ‘turn to affect’ in critical academia, producing critical pedagogies that resist state affective discourse. I argue that these practices are essential for problematizing neoliberal discourse, yet existing literature tends to elide the role of the body in effective resistance, emphasising intellectual aspects of critique. The paper sketches an alternative, drawing on psychoanalytic and practiced pedagogies that aim to transgress the mind-body dualism and hierarchy, in particular Roberto Freire’s work on Somatherapy.

Conspicuous by their abstinence: the limited engagement of heroin users in English and Welsh Drug Recovery Wings

Background In recent years, an abstinence-focused, ‘recovery’ agenda has emerged in UK drug policy, largely in response to the perception that many opioid users had been ‘parked indefinitely’ on Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST). The introduction of ten pilot ‘Drug Recovery Wings’ (DRWs) in 2011 represents the application of this recovery agenda to prisons. This paper describes the DRWs’ operational models, the place of opiate dependent prisoners within them, and the challenges of delivering ‘recovery’ in prison. Methods In 2013, the implementation and operational models of all ten pilot DRWs were rapidly assessed. Up to three days were spent in each DRW, undertaking semi-structured interviews with a sample of 94 DRW staff and 102 DRW residents. Interviews were fully transcribed, and coded using grounded theory. Findings from the nine adult prisons are presented here. Results Four types of DRW were identified, distinguished by their size and selection criteria. Strikingly, no mid- or large-sized units regularly supported OST recipients through detoxification. Type A were large units whose residents were mostly on OST with long criminal records and few social or personal resources. Detoxification was rare, and medication reduction slow. Type B's mid-sized DRW was developed as a psychosocial support service for OST clients seeking detoxification. However, staff struggled to find such prisoners, and detoxification again proved rare. Type C DRWs focused on abstinence from all drugs, including OST. Though OST clients were not intentionally excluded, very few applied to these wings. Only Type D DRWs, offering intensive treatment on very small wings, regularly recruited OST recipients into abstinence-focused interventions. Conclusion Prison units wishing to support OST recipients in making greater progress towards abstinence may need to be small, intensive and take a stepped approach based on preparatory motivational work and extensive preparation for release. However, concerns about post-release deaths will remain.

Talent Identification and Development in Tennis

Accurately identifying individuals at a young age who are most likely to excel in a given sport remains a pursuit for coaches, parents and national governing bodies worldwide. In a sport such as tennis, the financial investment needed to support a player’s development is substantial, although this is offset by the vast sums of money that are on offer for those few elite players who reach the very top of the game. As such, tennis can be considered to represent a high risk, high reward venture, where the value of being able to better identify those who are likely to ‘make it’ takes on extra emphasis. The debate surrounding the timeless ‘nature versus nurture’ conundrum rumbles on and shows no sign of abating. The relative contribution that deliberate practice (Starkes & Ericsson, 2003) as opposed to genetics (Tucker & Collins, 2011) play in the development of champions remains a contentious issue. Popular texts such as ‘Bounce’ (Syed, 2010) and communications intended specifically for tennis coaches (Roetert, Kovacs & Crespo, 2009) have served to engage a wider community in the debate. It is the intention of this short article to summarize the key points emerging from this body of work and to offer some guidance to coaches moving forward.