The forgotten dimension of social reproduction: the World Bank and the poverty reduction strategy paradigm

Abstract

This article invokes Gramscian theory in an effort to better grasp the reorganization of social reproduction under neoliberal globalization. It argues that recent transformations in the world development order warrant a rethinking of the concept of social reproduction, towards acknowledging the increasingly apparent role of transnational governance institutions in organizing social reproduction processes, particularly in peripheral countries. To substantiate this argument, the article interrogates the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper development approach, the most visible policy tool of the post-Washington Consensus. In the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper process, the World Bank has started to link debt relief administered through the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC II) initiative to the delivery of basic social services to the poor, and directly finances human capital investments through conditional cash transfer programs. While conditionalities attached to Bank funding continue to promote the privatization of various state functions associated with social reproduction, especially in the areas of health care and education, the Bank, at the same time, funds ‘social inclusion’ programs that directly absorb some of these functions. This signals the emergence of a new social reproduction regime of ‘conditional inclusion’ under World Bank leadership.

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