Abstract

"PROVISIONING" : THE PRACTICAL AND STRATEGIC WORK OF WOMEN And THEIR COMMUNITIES IN THE NEW ECONOMY

Marge Reitsma-Street

Economic restructuring and dismantling of social welfare provisions have disparate effects across different segments of the population. Women are disproportionately affected because the multiple types of work they do inside and outside the formal economy restricts the capacity of women to ‘develop' themselves. In contrast to concepts of development and sustainability, this paper examines the utility of the concepts of ‘provisioning' and ‘provisioning communities' to explore innovative strategies that groups of women are using to provide for themselves, and members of their households and neighbourhoods. An emphasis on provisioning breaks down distinctions between market, familial and social activities; it includes production, reproduction and distribution activities needed for human beings to survive and flourish. Provisioning communities are defined as groups of women who come together in organizations or informal local initiatives such as community resource centres or food coops, to address practical livelihood needs as well as strategic fundamental sources of impoverishment. Women carry particular obligations to do provisioning, and it is women who bear the heaviest consequences when these efforts fail. The paper explores findings from preliminary research with women living on low incomes in Ontario and British Columbia who carry major provisioning responsibilities for others. Of particular interest is understanding what promotes and hinders the development of social spaces, social capital, and social agency within women and their provisioning communities that can help address both practical and strategic interests.

Bio

Dr. Marge Reitsma-Street is a Professor in the interdisciplinary graduate program Studies in Policy and Practice in the Faculty of Human and Social Development, University of Victoria and contributed chapters to Women's Caring and Restructuring Caring Labour. They are serving as Co-Directors of a research project "Women on the Edges of New Economies" funded by SSHRC .

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