Care Home from Home: Towards a Theory of the Reproductive Labour Process

This paper explores the application of labour process theory developed by Burawoy (1982) to reproductive labour, expanding its scope beyond the factory floor to include the affective and ideologically mediated dynamics of social reproduction. Building on Marxist Feminist scholarship, the paper argues that reproductive labour, both paid and unpaid, plays a fundamental role in the capitalist production of surplus-value, as it is essential to the creation of labour power. By developing the theoretical contours of a reproductive labour process, we explore how relations of coercion, consent, and resistance manifest in the daily experiences of carers, drawing from both primary ethnographic research and secondary data. In doing so, the paper illustrates how contemporary reproductive labour reflects dynamics similar to those identified by Burawoy, though within the context of commercial care work, migration, feminisation of caregiving, and the precarious conditions of modern service work. The findings reveal that reproductive labourers, whether paid or unpaid, face unique challenges, including financial hardship and the necessity of negotiating competing roles within the labour process. The paper concludes by discussing how these workers navigate the dual pressures of waged work and the unpaid labour of the home, offering new insights into the relationship between reproductive labour and the broader capitalist system. Through this analysis, we contribute to ongoing debates in Marxist Feminist theory, calling for greater integration of reproductive labour within labour process theory.