Glossary - antiparent book club

abolition: The act of fully ending something (such as slavery, death penalty, prisons, policing).; See also: family abolition
accumulation: The process of growing, expanding, or collecting something.; See also: capital accumulation
alienation: A state of disconnection from one’s self, community, or environment.
autonomy: The ability to make one’s own decisions; self-determination.
Black feminism: The intersection between the Black liberation movement and the women's liberation movement.
Black liberation movement: The movement to dismantle white supremacy and empower Black people.
bourgeois: Belonging to or related to the bourgeoisie.
bourgeoisie: The category of people who own capital and control most of capitalist society; the capitalist class; the owning class
capital: The assets (such as land, equipment, money, facilities) necessary to be able to make products.
capitalism: An economic system in which production is controlled by private owners rather than by public groups.
capital accumulation: The creation of additional capital.
child mortality: Child death, often expressed as a rate.
class consciousness: An awareness and understanding of one’s class status within the broader societal class structure. Usually refers to economic classes in Marxist analysis.
class struggle: The historical and ongoing conflicts between the working class and the capitalist class
collectivization: The process of taking a thing or system that used to be private and making it public.; The opposite of privatization.
commodity: A good or service created through human labor and offered for sale
communism: An economic system in which production is controlled by public groups rather than by private owners.
contradiction: The tension between two opposing concepts or categories.
degeneracy: The act of getting worse; being in really bad condition. Often associated with eugenics, especially regarding moral or neurological degeneracy among poor or disabled people.
deindustrialization: The reduction of industry in a region; the process of a country’s economy becoming less dependent on industrial manufacturing.
deportation: The act of forcefully removing someone from a country.
eugenics: The idea that the human race can be improved through selective breeding; encouraging people with “good genes” to reproduce while discouraging/preventing people with “bad genes.” Highly associated with Nazism and white supremacy.
fascism: A system of government characterized by a very powerful leader, severely unequal treatment between in-groups and out-groups (especially regarding racial and national identity), and bans against political opposition.
family: A household; a unit of privatized care.
family abolition: The act of expanding care systems to extend beyond the private family.
family policing system: The collection of institutions and individuals that work together to monitor and regulate families with children, reinforcing systems of racial/class/etc. oppression in the process.; Also referred to as child protective services, the child welfare system, the foster care system, and the family regulation system.
feudalism: The political and economic system that existed in medieval Europe (and arguably throughout Asia and Africa) before industrialization and the onset of capitalism. Characterized by strong separations between estates of the realm (clergy vs. nobility vs. peasantry), as well as a household-based system of production.
gay liberation movement: The movement aiming to liberate gay and trans people from social, legal, economic, and political repression.; Also referred to as the gay rights movement, the LGBT movement, or queer liberation movement.
gender socialization: The process of teaching children gender norms, hierarchies, and systems.
globalization: The expansion of economic, political, and social networks to a global scale. Mostly used to refer to post-Cold War economic development.
heterogeneity: Being made up of parts or people who are all very different from one another.
homogeneity: Being made up of parts or people who are all very similar to one another.
homonormativity: The adoption of heterosexual norms by LGBTQ people; an assimilationist approach to LGBTQ issues
Jim Crow: The laws and norms that enforced unequal legal, political, social, and economic treatment of Black and white people in 1800s-1960s United States
ideology: A set of values and beliefs.
incarceration: The act of keeping someone in a prison or similarly confined space.
industrialization: The increase of industry in a region; the process of a country’s economy becoming more dependent on industrial manufacturing.
industrial manufacturing: The large-scale production of commodities, particularly in factories rather than at home.
insurgent social reproduction: Social reproduction that occurs specifically at protest camps, which through collectivization, overrides many of the restrictions typically present in private households.
labor outsourcing: Ending a type of labor that used to occur internally in a system (such as within a family or a particular business), and instead sourcing it from outside the system.
legitimacy: Conformity with dominant norms or laws.
lumpenproletariat: A social and economic underclass analyzed by Marx and Engels which includes criminals, sex workers, unemployed people, unhoused people, and other “undesirables.” Also used to refer to members of the working class who lack class consciousness.; See also: surplus population
materialism: A framework for understanding reality which focuses on objective reality, material things, and the physical world (as opposed to thoughts and ideas).
migrant: Someone who moves from one country to another, on a semipermanent or permanent basis, especially for work.
migration: The act from moving from one place (especially a country) to another.
militantism: The practice of being engaged in (or prepared for) combat, particularly in service of a greater cause.
normative: Bringing something in line with what is broadly considered to be correct, typical, or desirable.
neoliberalism: A political and economic framework aimed towards expanding the role of the private sector in society and encouraging free-market capitalism. Associated with extensive deregulation and lower government spending, privatization, and economic globalization.
nuclear family: A family unit consisting of two parents and their children.
peasantry: The largest socioeconomic class under feudalism, comprised of farm laborers. Sometimes used to refer to landless agricultural workers under capitalism, especially in the Global South.
police brutality: The use of violence and excessive force by the police, resulting in injury or death.
pre-adolescent: Of an age between middle childhood and puberty, commonly defined as 9-12 years old.
private: Only for one person or for a small group of people; not for everyone.
privatization: The process of taking a thing or system that used to be public and making it private.; The opposite of collectivization.
production: The creation of commodities.
proletariat: The category of people who do not own capital in capitalist society and instead exchange their labor capacity for a wage; the working class
proletarianization: The historical process of converting peasantry under feudalism into members of the working class under capitalism.
public: For people in general; for everyone; not limited to a specific group of people.
public-private division: The difference between the private (domestic/home) realm vs. the public (work/leisure) realm; established through industrialization.
racial capitalism: A framework for analyzing capitalism that emphasizes racial dynamics of capitalist economies, especially structural antiblackness.
reactionary: adj. Against societal progress; favoring traditional practices and a return to a previous condition. Often associated with religious fundamentalism.; n. A person who favors reactionary views.
reformism: Supporting the step-by-step improvement of existing economic, political, social, and legal systems over their replacement with new systems.
religious fundamentalism: A religious approach that favors strict adherence to foundational texts and observance of traditional practices, defined in opposition to modernist or secularist practices.; See also: reactionary
revolutionism: Supporting the replacement of economic, political, social, and legal systems with significantly different ones, rather than trying to improve them little by little.
social minimum: The set of resources (food, housing, etc.) provided to everyone in a socialist or communist society to meet their basic needs.
social reproduction: The maintenance of existing social structures, dynamics, and institutions. Occurs on two scales: day-to-day and across generations.
social reproductive labor: The labor required for social reproduction. Also referred to as domestic labor, housework, education, childcare, eldercare.
social reproduction theory: A framework for understanding social reproduction developed by Marxist feminists in the 1970s.
state subsidy: Government funding through distribution of tax funds to households or businesses.
state violence: Actions taken by governmental institutions that directly or indirectly result in injury or death. Generally not considered to be criminal.; See also: police brutality
surplus population: Groups of people who are barred from participating in stable waged labor.
wage labor: Labor performed in exchange for a wage (paycheck).
white supremacy: The political, economic, legal and social domination by white people of racialized people, guided by a fundamental belief in the superiority of white people.
welfare: Financial and material support provided to households (especially low-income households) by the government.; See also: state subsidy
women’s liberation movement: The movement aiming to liberate women from social, legal, economic, and political repression.