My research expresses my involvement in social movements and desire to promote positive social and economic transformation.
I began my career in the midst of second wave feminism, and participated in the birthing of the field of Women’s Studies. My first books -- An Economic History of Women in America and, with Teresa Amott, Race, Gender & Work -- documented the extensive transformation of women's work and speculated as to a positive way forward. Another strand of my research has been Marxist-feminist economic theory and feminist economic policy, supported by my long-term participation in MFI, a Marxist-feminist study group centered in the Northeast.
In the early 2000s, I began to note and research the emergence of a possible economic way forward: a diverse and multiplying set of economic practices and institutions based in the values of equity in all dimensions, sustainability, cooperation, diversity, and economic democracy which are being called “the solidarity economy.” I edited the first book on the subject in the US, along with Jenna Allard and Carl Davidson, Solidarity Economy: Building Alternatives for People and Planet (2008), and I have written a number of articles and blogs on the topic (see vita, below). I am currently working on a book, "From Inequality to Solidarity: Co-Creating a New Economics for the 21st Century;” a short summary of the argument is available here and below.
I am active in the solidarity economy movement in the U.S. I was a co-founder of the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network (SEN) in 2007, and have served on its board ever since. I coordinate BASEN, the Boston Area Solidarity Economy Network, with Wayne Clark, as well as SEN’s Research and Policy Network. Contact me at jmatthaei@wellesley.edu if you would like to join either of these networks.
Selected Papers for Download
"From Inequality to Solidarity: Co-Creating a New Economics for the 21st Century." 2015. Paper summarizing the arguments in the forthcoming book, written for the Union for Radical Political Economics forthcoming reader.
“Beyond Hegemonic Economic Man: Economic Crisis, Feminist Economics, and the Solidarity Economy.” Unpublished paper.
"Confessions of a Radical Economics Prof,” in Meme Wars, ed. by Kalle Lasn. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2012. Originally published in Adbusters, #85, 2009.
Selected Blogs
“The Women’s March on Washington and the Coming of Age of Feminism,” Common Dreams, January 2017.
Letter to the Editor of the Wellesley News on creating beloved community in the classroom. 9/13/15
“Wellesley’s Ever-Expanding Womanhood,” with Irene Mata. Al Jazeera, 5/5/15
“The Time for a New Economics is at Hand,” Al Jazeera, 3/8/15
“Businesses Don’t Live in Fear of Animal Rights Activists, So Why Charge Them as Terrorists?” The Guardian. 2/19/15
“Letter to Treasury Secretary Lew,” Truthout, 1/26/15
“Waving free-market flag brings out worst in capitalism.” Letter to the Editor of the Boston Globe, 3/27/14
“Economists Hit Back in the Minimum Wage Wars,” Letter to the Editor of the New York Times, 3/14/14
With Neil Wollman, “Why the Occupy Movement is Good for Your Health,” November, 2011, in Common Dreams, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Truthout, and others.
“Occupy Thanksgiving,” Common Dreams, 11/27/11