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This special issue contains five articles on the subject of living standards and well-being, important topics in social economics. The authors assess the so-called squirrel cage of work-and-spend, and the culture of overconsumption in the USA and other industrialized countries. They evaluate overwork and the implications for balancing work and family, and underwork and the need for a basic income. The articles in this special issue point to a myriad of policy proposals to be found not only in employer practices but through broader universal policy solutions as well, such as nationally applicable labor standards, and access to paid leave and flexible scheduling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This address presents a vision of economics - drawing upon social, institutional, and feminist economics - that supports the assertion that there should be social responsibility for living standards. Alternative definitions of what an economy is and what economics should study are related to three definitions of living standards presented in Amartya Sen's 1985 Tanner Lectures on the topic. A social provisioning approach to economic life emphasizes that provisioning needs to be organized to promote human flourishing. One contemporary challenge is to do this in a manner that sustains caring and promotes gender equity. 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article asserts the social and economic significance of reproduction, feminists have demonstrated both women's economic contributions and a major site of power inequity. From the domestic labor debate to bargaining models of the household, much of the theoretical analysis of the political economy of gender has focused on understanding the sphere of reproduction. Conventional economic methods tend to neglect the process by which gender interacts with and shapes other social forces and institutions.

The article introduces the new section of the journal "Review of Social Economy" entitled "Speaker's Corners" and invites contributions for the section.