Author(s): Silvia Federici; Peter Linebaugh (Foreword by)

Literary Studies

In her clear and combative voice, Federici provides readers with an analysis of some of the key issues and debates 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 centres on women and reproductive work as crucial to both our economic survival and the construction of a world free from the hierarchies and divisions capital has planted in the body of the world proletariat. 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 capitalist organisation of life and labour.