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.

Far from the vision of popular actors in the popular economy as reactionary and archaic, stubbornly resisting any move towards change, this book's overall aim is to contribute to a broadening and deepening of our understanding of the logic and socio-economic practices of those operating in the informal economy. It focuses on the vulnerabilities of these participants, resulting from high exposure to different risks combined with low social protection, and on the interactions between vulnerability and poverty. It considers security of livelihoods as the guiding principle for multiple practices in the informal economy. Thirteen studies, based on careful analyses of empirical data in different contexts in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, contribute to this multidisciplinary discussion. This book describes how people develop their own strategies to solve their problems through the use of interpersonal networks, associations, and other community-based arrangements. Moreover, it shows that informal economy actors systematically reposition themselves vis-a-vis the State, markets, international, and national policies with the aim of enhancing their economic and social security, and they may do this either individually or collectively. The book emphasizes how adaptability of the informal economy can be influenced by such factors as the macroeconomic context, access to financial, technological, and information resources, infrastructure, social protection schemes, and the institutional environment within which adaptations occur. Case studies stress the need to reformulate questions relating to policy intervention based on a more thorough understanding of the perspective of informal economy actors.

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.