Cheap Labor?: Time, Capital and the Reproduction of Human Nature

Abstract

Continuing with the line of research in world-ecology, the author explains here the centrality of the reproduction of labor and unpaid work (human and extra-human) for the maintenance of capitalist accumulation cycles. Although the role that migrations play in these structural dynamics is only briefly mentioned in the chapter, the world-historical analysis of the centrality of cheap labor at a global level provides an excellent framework for the contents of this issue and for the development of future studies in this field.