Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons

Description

In this edited collection of work spanning more than 20 years, Silvia Federici provides a detailed history and critique of the politics of the commons from a feminist perspective. In her clear and combative voice, Federici provides readers with an analysis of some of the key issues in contemporary thinking on this subject. Drawing on rich historical research, she maps the connections between the previous forms of enclosure that occurred with the birth of capitalism and the destruction of the commons and the “new enclosures” at the heart of the present phase of global capitalist accumulation. Considering the commons from a feminist perspective, this collection argues that women and reproductive work are crucial to both our economic survival and the construction of a world free from the capitalist hierarchies. Federici is clear that the commons should not be understood as happy islands in a sea of exploitative relations—but rather autonomous spaces from which to challenge the existing organization of life and labor. Front Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 2 Half Title......Page 6 Copyright......Page 7 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Foreword......Page 14 Introduction......Page 20 Part One: On the New Enclosures......Page 30 Introduction to Part One......Page 32 On Primitive Accumulation, Globalization, and Reproduction......Page 34 Introduction to the New Enclosures......Page 45 The Debt Crisis, Africa, and the New Enclosures......Page 53 China: Breaking the Iron Rice Bowl......Page 70 From Commoning to Debt: Financialization, Microcredit, and the Changing Architecture of Capital Accumulation......Page 79 Part Two: On the Commons......Page 94 Introduction to Part Two......Page 96 Beneath the United States, the Commons......Page 97 Commons against and beyond Capitalism......Page 104 The University: A Knowledge Common?......Page 118 Feminism and the Politics of the Commons in an Era of Primitive Accumulation......Page 121 Women’s Struggles for Land in Africa and the Reconstruction of the Commons......Page 135 Women’s Struggles for Land and the Common Good in Latin America......Page 153 Marxism, Feminism, and the Commons......Page 170 From Crisis to Commons: Reproductive Work, Affective Labor and Technology, and the Transformation of Everyday Life......Page 194 Re-enchanting the World: Technology, the Body, and the Construction of the Commons......Page 207 Bibliography......Page 217 About the Authors......Page 236 Index......Page 238