Abstract
This chapter introduces the range of poor souls who have been labelled as ‘unproductive people’: from buffoons to housewives. The chapter outlines the ways in which the dichotomy between ‘productive’ and ‘unproductive’ labour has been used in the history of political economy, including in the works of Adam Smith and Karl Marx. It was against the backdrop of Marx’s claims about ‘unproductive labour’ that twentieth-century political theorists discussed whether we should retain a distinction between productive and unproductive labour, and if so, what purposes that distinction served. Working through these debates, the chapter gradually focusses in on why the idea of productive labour mattered particularly for feminists, who saw unpaid housework being side-lined in orthodox Marxist political economy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Bladen, V. W. “Adam Smith on Productive and Unproductive Labour: A Theory of Full Development.” The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne d’Economique et de Science politique 26(4) (1960): 625–630.
Bubeck, Diemut Elisabet. Care, Gender, and Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Chernomas, Robert. “Productive and Unproductive Labour and the Rate of Profit in Malthus, Ricardo, and Marx.” Journal of the History of Economic Thought 12 (Spring 1990): 81–95.
Dalla Costa, Mariarosa. “Women and the Subversion of the Community.” In The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community, edited by Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Selma James, 19–54. Bristol: Falling Wall Press, 1973.
Folbre, Nancy. “The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution in Nineteenth-Century Economic Thought.” Signs 16(3) (1991): 463–484.
Gough, Ian. “Marx’s Theory of Productive and Unproductive Labour.” New Left Review 1/76 (1972): 47–74.
Gough, Ian, and John Harrison. “Unproductive Labour and Housework Again.” Bulletin of the Conference of Socialist Economists 4(1) (1975): 1–7.
Howell, Peter. “Once Again on Productive and Unproductive Labour.” Revolutionary Communist 1(3/4) (1975): 46–68.
Jefferson, Therese, and John E. King. “‘Never Intended to Be a Theory of Everything’: Domestic Labor in Neoclassical and Marxian Economics.” Feminist Economics 7(3) (2001): 71–101.
Luxemburg, Rosa. “Women’s Suffrage and Class Struggle.” In Socialism and Barbarism: The Selected Writings of Rosa Luxemburg, edited by Paul Le Blanc and Helen C. Scott, 166–172. London and New York, NY: Pluto Press, 2010.
Marx, Karl. Capital: Vol. 1. Translated by Ben Fowkes. London: Penguin Books, 1990.
Marx, Karl. Capital: Vol. III. Translated by David Fernbach. London: Penguin, 1991.
Marx, Karl. Grundrisse. Translated by Martin Nicolaus. London: Penguin, 1993.
Meiksins, Peter. “Productive and Unproductive Labor and Marx Theory of Value.” Review of Radical Political Economics 13(3) (1981): 32–42.
Mill, John Stuart. Principles of Political Economy: Book 1. London: Longman, 1909 [1848].
Rasmussen, Lars Løkke. “Statsminister Lars Løkke Rasmussens Tale Ved Folketingets Åbning” [“First Minister’s Speech at the Parliament’s Opening”]. Speech at the Danish Folketing, Copenhagen, 6 October 2015, Author’s Translation. Accessed 20 November 2016. http://stm.dk/_p_14250.html.
Savran, Sungar, and E. Ahmet Tonak. “Productive and Unproductive Labour: An Attempt at Clarification and Classification.” Capital and Class 68 (1999): 113–152.
Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations: Books I–III. London: Penguin, 1986 [1776].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cockburn, P.J.L. (2018). Unproductive People. In: The Politics of Dependence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78908-8_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78908-8_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-78709-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78908-8
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)