In Depletion, Shirin M. Rai examines the human costs of caring and how these are reproduced across the boundaries of class, race, gender, and generation. Including case studies from different parts of the world and building on various methodologies, Rai looks at the costs of care work, or what she calls "social reproduction" in several forms. Chapters examine the costs of commuting to work, the value of unpaid work performed by women of different classes, the costs of household work performed by children, and the costs to communities when local economies are challenged by corporate interests.

Shirin M. Rai is Distinguished Research Professor of Politics and International Relations at SOAS, University of London, and a Fellow of the British Academy. Her research interests are in the fields of political economy of development, gender and political institutions, and performance and politics. She is the author, co-author, or co-editor of several books, including Performing Representation: Women Members in the Indian Parliament and The Oxford Handbook of Politics and Performance.

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Care, Social Reproduction, and Depletion
Chapter 1. Depletion: The Costs of Social Reproduction and How to Reverse It
Chapter 2. Measuring Depletion in Multiple Registers
Chapter 3. A Day in the Life of . . . : Mapping Individual Depletion Across Class Boundaries
Chapter 4. Depletion on the Move: Commuting and Social Reproduction
Chapter 5. Depleting Futures: Children Who Care
Chapter 6. Postcards to the Future: Anticipatory Harm and Struggles Against Extractivism
Conclusion: Building Solidarities to Reverse Depletion
Notes
References
Index