Democratic Economic Planning from and for Social Reproduction: Foundations for a Postcapitalist Research Agenda

Authors

• Sophie Elias-Pinsonnault, University of Massachusetts AmherstFollow
• Bengi Akbulut Dr., Concordia UniversityFollow
• Audrey Laurin-Lamothe Dr., York UniversityFollow

Keywords

Social reproduction, democratic planning, postcapitalism, feminist political economy, care work, needs, multi-scalar governance, provisioning systems

Document Type

Essay

Abstract

As ecological and social crises render the transformation of capitalist economic organization increasingly urgent, the resurgence of interest in democratic economic planning confronts a foundational blind spot: the systematic neglect of social reproduction. This paper argues that any genuinely needs-based planned economy must extend its scope beyond formally recognized productive activities to encompass the full spectrum of reproductive labor through which human and non-human life is sustained and regenerated. Drawing on feminist political economy and the Marxist-feminist tradition, the authors argue that meeting needs requires more than reorganizing production: it demands confronting the question of who does reproductive work, at what scale, and under what conditions. Central to this argument is the explicit recognition that all production decisions are simultaneously social reproduction decisions. Building on these foundations, the paper examines the question of scale and decision-making, which requires theorizing (re)production as an inherently multi-scalar phenomenon in which the logics of efficiency and community solidarity stand in irreducible tension. The paper concludes by mapping a research agenda that calls for integrating the literatures of provisioning systems, foundational economy, care ethics, and multi-level governance to develop the institutional and democratic frameworks adequate to planning social reproduction in its full complexity.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Elias-Pinsonnault, Sophie; Akbulut, Bengi Dr.; and Laurin-Lamothe, Audrey Dr. (2026) "Democratic Economic Planning from and for Social Reproduction: Foundations for a Postcapitalist Research Agenda," Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis: Vol. 4: Iss. 5, Article 4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55533/2765-8414.1169
Available at: https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/emancipations/vol4/iss5/4