Grassroots Economies : Living with Austerity in Southern Europe

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.