A Workshop on Law, Harm and Social Reproduction: Report

20-21 June 2018, Radcliffe House, University of Warwick
Convened by Shirin Rai and Briony Jones (Warwick) and Beth Goldblatt (University of Technology Sydney)

Sponsored by Warwick GRP International Development Department of Politics and International Studies and Interdisciplinary Global Development Centre (University of York)

The workshop was organised to explore the interlinkages between gender, law and political economy work on depletion through social reproduction and harm. We invited this particular group for an interdisciplinary dialogue about harm and social reproduction: some participants have worked on this issue in the context of international political economy – depletion through social representation as harm – and others on legal issues of harm in the context of conflict, post-conflict and of violence more generally.

The question that all the participants addressed was: Can we argue for the broadening of legal definitions of harm that should include recognition and compensation of social reproduction and the depletion that may arise from this? More specifically, presentations addressed the following questions:

• Does the concept of depletion give greater conceptual depth to the notion of harm occasioned by caring?
• What role can the state play in developing policies that address the harm attendant upon depletion?
• Can legal change, whether through legislation or the courts, open up the compensatory regime, taking into account depletion of carers, households and communities?
• Can we include ideas of harm due to depletion into international law both in the area of transitional justice and more widely in framing a range of compensatory/reparative responses?

Nine papers explored these questions through theoretical and empirical interventions and provocations (see programme for abstracts). A discussion of taking this work forward resulted in the decision to submit one or two panels at the European Consortium of Gender and Politics (Amsterdam, 2019) and to explore whether we can publish a special issue of European Journal of Politics and Gender. The proposal has been submitted and we are awaiting decision.

The workshop was generously supported by GRP International Development and Department of Politics and International Studies (University of Warwick) and Interdisciplinary Global Development Centre (University of York).

GRP International Development and IGDC hope to build on this workshop to pursue collaborative projects and funding applications. The workshop also builds on the collaboration between scholars from Monash and Warwick Universities.