The deepening of financialised social reproduction in Southern Europe

Abstract

This chapter brings together the strands of literature on financialisation and feminist political economy in the analysis of financialised social reproduction in Southern Europe. Specifically, it draws on the Systems of Provision approach that has examined the diverse ways in which finance has penetrated economic and social reproduction, including connections with material culture. The chapter draws on the feminist political economy take on social reproduction with a more circumscribed focus on the activities required for the reproduction of labour power carried out of the wage labour relation and mostly by women. The financialised social reproduction is illustrated by presenting the Portuguese financialised housing system. The chapter reasserts the differentiated nature of financialised social reproduction in time and place and what can be termed as the resulting variegated, volatile vulnerabilities, even within a fairly homogeneous region such as Southern Europe.