Social Work Commons^™

The Apparatus Of Social Reproduction: Uncovering The Work Functions Of Transgender Women, William A. Lane, Kristie L. Seelman

SW Publications

The apparatus of social reproduction describes the process by which knowledge production contributes to oppressive conditions. This article explains and defines this process through the application of a critical theoretical lens informed the Foucauldian concept of apparatus or dispositif and social reproduction as developed by feminist activists and intellectuals. This process has a notable influence on the political economic conditions of transgender women, conditions that include disproportionate reliance on the use of criminalized economies such as sex work. Social workers inadvertently influence this process through an overreliance on broad categorizations for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer populations, which impede …