13.05.2025
Feminist Economics & The Value of Care
with Emma Holten & Lynn Berger
On the occasion of the Dutch translation of Deficit: How Feminist Economics Can Change Our World, we welcomed prominent Danish writer Emma Holten to De Dépendance.
In Deficit: How Feminist Economics Can Change Our World, Emma Holten traces how economic thinkers – from the Enlightenment onwards – created a value framework that overlooked and neglected ‘women’s work’ and acts of care. Because care work could not be measured, it became invisible. Holten reveals how the economic models that drive political decisions today are just as flawed, giving us unparalleled monetary wealth, but causing deep social harms that are hurting us all.
So who gets to define what is valuable? And if we cannot properly value the things that matter, how can we build a better future? Emma Holten discussed these questions with Lynn Berger, care correspondent at journalistic platform De Correspondent and De Dépendance editor Sereh Mandias.
Participants
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Emma Holten
Emma Holten (1991) is a Danish human rights activist, feminist and writer. She became internationally known in 2014 with her project Consent about her own experience with digital sexual violence. Deficit is her first book, which was jubilantly received and became an instant bestseller. The Dutch translation is published by De Geus under the title Tekort: Hoe een feministische economie ons leven rijker kan maken.
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Lynn Berger
As care correspondent for de Correspondent, Lynn Berger explores the world of care, from professional healthcare to informal caregiving. Her work examines the meaning of care relationships in today’s society. She authored three books: ‘I Do Work (I Just Don’t Get Paid For It)’ (2023), ‘Care: A Better Look at Humanity’ (2022), and ‘Second Thoughts: On Having and Being a Second Child’ (2019).
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Sereh Mandias
Sereh Mandias studied Architecture at the TU Delft and Philosophy at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. In her work she oscillates between theory and praxis, with a specific interest in the creation of the contemporary city. She works as an independent writer and researcher, is the founder of architecture podcast Windoog, editor of Journal for Architecture OASE and teaches at the Chair of Interiors Buildings Cities (Faculty of Architecture and the built Environment, TU Delft) and the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture.