Social Science Feminism & Feminist Theory
Beyond the Periphery of the Skin
Rethinking, Remaking, and Reclaiming the Body in Contemporary Capitalism
- Publisher
- Between the Lines
- Initial publish date
- Jan 2020
- Category
- Feminism & Feminist Theory, Gender Studies, Radicalism
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781771134873
- Publish Date
- Jan 2020
- List Price
- $16.95
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Description
More than ever, “the body” is today at the center of radical and institutional politics. Feminist, antiracist, trans, ecological movements–all look at the body in its manifold manifestations as a ground of confrontation with the state and a vehicle for transformative social practices. Concurrently, the body has become a signifier for the reproduction crisis the neoliberal turn in capitalist development has generated and for the international surge in institutional repression and public violence. In Beyond the Periphery of the Skin, lifelong activist and best-selling author Silvia Federici examines these complex processes, placing them in the context of the history of the capitalist transformation of the body into a work-machine.
Building on three groundbreaking lectures, Federici surveys the new paradigms that today govern how the body is conceived in the collective radical imagination, as well as the new disciplinary regimes state and capital are deploying in response to mounting revolt against the daily attacks on our everyday reproduction. In this process she confronts some of the most important questions for contemporary radical political projects. What does “the body” mean, today, as a category of social/political action? What are the processes by which it is constituted? How do we dismantle the tools by which our bodies have been “enclosed” and collectively reclaim our capacity to govern them?
About the author
Silvia Federici is a feminist activist and scholar whose writing and political activities have contributed enormously to the broad Autonomist tradition. Known for her intellectual generosity, sharp, nonconformist thought, and searing critiques of capitalist society, Federici’s work has inspired the generation of social activists associated with the rise of the alter-globalization movement.
Editorial Reviews
Federici’s attempt to draw together the work of feminists and activists from different parts of the world and place them in historical context is brave, thought-provoking, and timely. Federici’s writing is lucid and her fury palpable.
<p><em>Red Pepper</em></p>
Reading Federici empowers us to reconnect with what is at the core of human development, women’s labor-intensive caregiving—a radical rethinking of how we live.
<p><em>Z Magazine</em></p>
Real transformations occur when the social relations that make up everyday life change, when there is a revolution within and across the stratifications of the social body. . . . Silvia Federici offers the kind of revolutionary perspective that is capable of revealing the obstacles that stand in the way of such change.
<p><em>Feminist Review</em></p>
Other titles by
The Crisis of Social Reproduction
Silvia Federici and Mariarosa Dalla Costa in conversation with Louise Toupin
Patriarchy of the Wage
Notes on Marx, Gender, and Feminism
Revolution at Point Zero
Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle
Re-enchanting the World
Feminism and the Politics of the Commons
Nothing to Lose but Our Fear
Resistance in Dangerous Times