Overview

This book presents a feminist historical materialist analysis of the ways in which the law, policing and penal regimes have overlapped with social policies to coercively discipline the poor and marginalized sectors of the population throughout the history of capitalism. Roberts argues that capitalism has always been underpinned by the use of state power to discursively construct and materially manage those sectors of the population who are most resistant to and marginalized by the instantiation and deepening of capitalism. The book reveals that the law, along with social welfare regimes, have operated in ways that are highly gendered, as gender – along with race – has been a key axis along which difference has been constructed and regulated. It offers an important theoretical and empirical contribution that disrupts the tendency for mainstream and critical work within IPE to view capitalism primarily as an economic relation. Roberts also provides a feminist critique of the failure of mainstream and critical scholars to analyse the gendered nature of capitalist social relations of production and social reproduction. Exploring a range of issues related to the nature of the capitalist state, the creation and protection of private property, the governance of poverty, the structural compulsions underpinning waged work and the place of women in paid and unpaid labour, this book is of great use to students and scholars of IPE, gender studies, social work, law, sociology, criminology, global development studies, political science and history.

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9780367878733

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Reviews

'Timely and trenchant, Roberts cogently demonstrates how primitive accumulation, punitive legislation and gendered oppressions are constitutive of capitalism's historical and contemporary practices - with corollary implications for centralizing gendered and racialized processes in analyses of, and struggles against, today's global lockdown.' - V Spike Peterson, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA 'In this fascinating study, Adrienne Roberts combines a historical analysis with the so called 'extra-economic' forms of coercion. As such it focuses on crime, criminalization, discipline and punishment from a feminist historical materialist perspective. By including these 'extra-economic forms' it sheds light on a largely neglected area in IPE of the increasing criminalization of poor women.' - Brigitte Young, University of Munster, Germany 'Powerfully argued, well documented, and treating a subject at the center of social activism and political debate, Adrienne Roberts' book is a major contribution to a feminist analysis of the disciplining of women in capitalist society.' - Silvia Federici, Hofstra University, USA

'Timely and trenchant, Roberts cogently demonstrates how primitive accumulation, punitive legislation and gendered oppressions are constitutive of capitalism's historical and contemporary practices - with corollary implications for centralizing gendered and racialized processes in analyses of, and struggles against, today's global lockdown.' - V Spike Peterson, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA 'In this fascinating study, Adrienne Roberts combines a historical analysis with the so called 'extra-economic' forms of coercion. As such it focuses on crime, criminalization, discipline and punishment from a feminist historical materialist perspective. By including these 'extra-economic forms' it sheds light on a largely neglected area in IPE of the increasing criminalization of poor women.' - Brigitte Young, University of Munster, Germany 'Powerfully argued, well documented, and treating a subject at the center of social activism and political debate, Adrienne Roberts' book is a major contribution to a feminist analysis of the disciplining of women in capitalist society.' - Silvia Federici, Hofstra University, USA

Author Information

Adrienne Roberts is Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Manchester, UK.　She works in the areas of IPE, feminist political economy, finance, debt and debt-driven development. Her work has been published in a number of leading academic journals.

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