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Dead Ends and Blind Spots in the European Semester: The Epistemological Foundation of the Crisis in Social Reproduction

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  • Rosalind Cavaghan
  • Anna Elomäki

Abstract

This article provides new perspectives on the persistent hierarchy between ‘social’ and ‘economic’ goals in European Union's (EU) economic governance. We operationalize insights from feminist economics and political economy to analyse the agenda‐setting documents of the European Semester – the Annual Growth Surveys (AGS) – showing how the much‐debated integration of social goals into the European Semester is fundamentally constrained by mainstream economic epistemologies. These epistemologies misrepresent interrelationships between the productive economy and the reproductive labour needed to maintain it. Using interpretive policy analysis, we show how multiple concepts and measurements used to conceptualize policy goals and impacts within the AGSs, coalesce to systematically misrepresent reproductive labour as a ‘social’ activity, an irrelevance, or a cost, rather than a macroeconomic input. This restricts the possibilities of enhancing the social dimension of the European Semester, in ways conspicuously ignored by the existing literature, which are of heightened salience in the wake of Covid‐19.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosalind Cavaghan & Anna Elomäki, 2022. "Dead Ends and Blind Spots in the European Semester: The Epistemological Foundation of the Crisis in Social Reproduction," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 885-902, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:60:y:2022:i:4:p:885-902
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13288
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Marilyn Power, 2004. "Social Provisioning As A Starting Point For Feminist Economics," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 3-19.
    2. Rosalind Cavaghan & Muireann O'Dwyer, 2018. "European Economic Governance in 2017: A Recovery for Whom?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(S1), pages 96-108, September.
    3. Paul Copeland & Mary Daly, 2018. "The European Semester and EU Social Policy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(5), pages 1001-1018, July.
    4. Ian Manners & Richard Whitman, 2016. "Another Theory is Possible: Dissident Voices in Theorising Europe," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 3-18, January.
    5. Anna Elomäki & Johanna Kantola, 2020. "European Social Partners as Gender Equality Actors in EU Social and Economic Governance," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 999-1015, July.
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