Seminar: "The invisibilized burden: care work and its unequal global exchange", by Raúl Velasco

The REAL-Postgrowth project (Post-growth – REAL – A Post-Growth Deal) is excited to announce that ICTA-UAB postdoctoral researcher Raúl Velasco-Fernández, presents a talk as part of our monthly public seminar series.

Seminar: "The invisibilized burden: care work and its unequal global exchange"

Speaker:  Raúl Velasco- Fernández, ICTA-UAB postdoctoral researcher

• Date: Tuesday, October 7th 2025
• Time:  15 -16.30 (CET)
• Venue: Sala Montseny (Z/022 - Z/023) ICTA-UAB. Online- https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88547266318?pwd=Zc1UGBL8baTWlHVY59fMptfM5S9dQH.1

Unequal exchange literature has shown that growth and consumption in the global North rely on a large net appropriation of embodied work and resources from the global South. Yet, existing research has focused only on paid work embodied in traded goods, neglecting the vast amount of unpaid care work (mostly done by women) required to sustain and reproduce those workers.

This presentation examines the global magnitude of paid and unpaid care work, its unequal distribution across genders and regions, its evolution in recent decades, and how global North net appropriate massive amounts of it through unequal exchange, enabling it to consume more labor than provided by its own workforce. 

Raúl Velasco-Fernández is a postdoctoral researcher at ICTA-UAB. With a transdisciplinary background in industrial engineering, sociology, and ecological economics, his research explores the complex relationships between energy, materials, demography and time use to comprehensively analyze societal metabolism and inform viable post-growth pathways.