The importance of practices of collective care: Exploring directions for an alternative productive paradigm fitting our times’ social, economic and ecological requirements

The Anthropocene is characterized by multiple crises associated with the infinite accumulation of growth on a planet of finite resources. Productive labour and the 8-h working model contribute to this contradiction. We argue for the reduction of productive labour in favour of reproductive labour accumulated through practices of collective care. The latter can heal the damage capital accumulation produces. Collective care brings into light various social practices often invisible to production, allows for a new understanding of nonhuman agency, and challenges the dominant ethical disposition around work. We advocate for a new power equilibrium between productive and reproductive labour.