Overview

The austerity crisis has radically altered the economic landscape of Southern Europe. But alongside the decimation of public services and infrastructure lies the wreckage of a generation's visions for the future. In Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, there is a new, difficult reality of downward mobility. Grassroots Economies interrogates the effects of the economic crisis on the livelihood of working people, providing insight into their anxieties. Drawing on a wide range of ethnographic material, it is a distinctive comparative analysis that explores the contradictions of their coping mechanisms and support structures. With a focus on gender, the book explores values and ideologies, including dispossession and accumulation. Ultimately it demonstrates that everyday interactions on the local scale provide a significant sense of the global.

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9780745340227

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Reviews

'Grassroots Economies offers an astute and heart-breaking account of the toll decades of austerity politics have taken on southern Europe. Each chapter offers remarkable insights-taken together they present a sober and illuminating portrait of dispossession and loss' -- Jane Collins, author of 'The Politics of Value: Three Movements to Change How We Think about the Economy' 'The financial crisis started in 2008 and the austerity policies that ensued have dramatically transformed the lives of millions of poor people in Southern European countries. This book is the outcome of an important anthropological research project over that period. It vividly documents how people faced tremendous difficulties and the loss of imagined trajectories to improve their own livelihoods, and activated intergenerational solidarity and self-sacrifice. It is a splendid, rigorously documented and well-written account of people's resilience in difficult times that may be of even greater interest now as the pandemic crisis unfolds.' -- Professor Enzo Mingione, University of Milano-Bicocca 'Against cultural prejudices commonly used to interpret the economic difficulties encountered by Southern European countries, Susana Narotzky and her colleagues have inquired into the precarious lives of people confronted with austerity in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Their 'Grassroot Economies' is a magistral endeavor to account for the current brutalisation of societies by capitalist practices and neoliberal policies.' -- Didier Fassin, author of 'Life: A Critical User's Manual'l

'Grassroots Economies offers an astute and heartbreaking account of the toll decades of austerity politics have taken on southern Europe. Each chapter offers remarkable insights-taken together they present a sober and illuminating portrait of dispossession and loss' -- Jane Collins, author of 'The Politics of Value: Three Movements to Change How We Think about the Economy' 'The financial crisis started in 2008 and the austerity policies that ensued have dramatically transformed the lives of millions of poor people in Southern European countries. This book is the outcome of an important anthropological research project over that period. It vividly documents how people faced tremendous difficulties and the loss of imagined trajectories to improve their own livelihoods, and activated intergenerational solidarity and self-sacrifice. It is a splendid, rigorously documented and well-written account of people's resilience in difficult times that may be of even greater interest now as the pandemic crisis unfolds.' -- Professor Enzo Mingione, University of Milano-Bicocca

'Grassroots Economies offers an astute and heart-breaking account of the toll decades of austerity politics have taken on southern Europe. Each chapter offers remarkable insights - taken together they present a sober and illuminating portrait of dispossession and loss.' -- Jane Collins, author of 'The Politics of Value: Three Movements to Change How We Think about the Economy’ 'This book vividly documents how people faced with austerity policies activated intergenerational solidarity and self-sacrifice. It is a splendid, rigorously documented and well-written account of people's resilience in difficult times that may be of even greater interest now as the pandemic crisis unfolds.' -- Enzo Mingione, Professor of Sociology, University of Milano-Bicocca 'This book shows how the real economy works and thus redefines key concepts in economics such as competition, monopoly, regulation, work and value. All economists should read this book.' -- Isabelle Guérin, Economist at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development 'Susana Narotzky and her colleagues have inquired into the precarious lives of people confronted with austerity in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Their Grassroot Economies is a magistral endeavor to account for the current brutalisation of societies by capitalist practices and neoliberal policies.' -- Didier Fassin, author of 'Life: A Critical User’s Manual' 'This volume represents a major contribution to economic anthropology and to the comparative ethnology of southern Europe. It is a rich, evocative ethnographic portrait of lives and livelihoods under conditions of austerity in southern Europe.' -- Sharryn M. Kasmir, Professor of Anthropology, Hofstra University

Author Information

Susana Narotzky is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Barcelona, Spain, and past President of the European Association of Social Anthropologists.

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