Social Reproduction, Solidarity Economy, Feminisms and Democracy

This book contributes to timely debates on the conditions of resistance and changes with the aim to offer a ray of hope in times of ecological, economic, social and democracy crisis worldwide. In the context of the crisis of social reproduction, impoverishment and growing inequalities, myriads of women-led grass-root initiatives are bubbling up. They reorganize social reproduction; redefine the meaning of work and value; explore new ways of doing economics and politics; construct solidarity-driven social relationships and combat their subordination. In doing so, these initiatives challenge the patriarchal, financialized and dehumanizing capitalist system and offer transformative, sustainable paths for feminist social change. Drawing on fine-grained ethnographies in Latin America and India, this book sheds light on women’s daily struggles, their difficulties, contradictions, fragilities, and also their successes and achievements. This book seeks to inspire activists, researchers and policy-makers in the field of feminism and solidarity economy to contribute to amplifying the movement, which rests on the articulation of the various initiatives.

Christine Verschuur is Senior Lecturer and Researcher in the Anthropology and Sociology/Gender Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland. Her research interests include social reproduction, agroecology and peasant studies, solidarity economy, urban social movements and gender experts. She has published a number of books including Under Development: Gender (with I. Guérin and H. Guétat-Bernard, 2014), Genre et économie solidaire, des croisements nécessaires (with I. Guérin and I. Hillenkamp, 2017), and Savoirs féministes au Sud: Expertes en genre et tournant décolonial (2019).Isabelle Guérin is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Research Development (IRD-CESSMA), France, and Associate to the French Institute of Pondicherry. Her current work focuses on the financialization of domestic economies, how it engenders new forms of inequalities and domination, but also alternative and solidarity-based initiatives. She has edited a number of books including Randomized Control Trials in the Field of Development (with F. Bédécarrats and F. Roubaud, 2020).Isabelle Hillenkamp is Research Fellow at the Institute of Research Development (IRD-CESSMA), France. Her research focuses on the popular and solidarity economy from a socio-economic perspective, attentive to the links between economic practices and social relations. She has conducted research in Mexico, Bolivia and Brazil. She has edited a number of books and journal special issues, including “As Outras Economias à Luz do Gênero” (Otra Economia 22(12), 2019, with L. Jalil).