Domesticating Neo-Liberalism - Spaces Of Economic Practice And Social Reproduction In Post-Socialistcities

Based on in-depth research in Poland and Slovakia, Domesticating Neo-Liberalism addresses how we understand the processes of neo-liberalization in post-socialist cities.
Builds upon a vast amount of new research data
Examines how households try to sustain their livelihoods at particularly dramatic and difficult times of urban transformation
Provides a major contribution to how we theorize the geographies of neo-liberalism
Offers a conclusion which informs discussions of social policy within European Union enlargement

Adrian Smith is Professor of Human Geography and Head of Department at Queen Mary, University of London. He works on the economic and social geographies of transformation from state socialism in East-Central Europe, with a particular focus on industrial and regional change and on community and household economies. This research has involved a number of externally-funded research projects including ESRC, Nuffield, and US National Science Foundation.
Alison Stenning is Reader in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University. She has worked on the economic and social geographies of post-socialism for more than 15 years, focusing particularly on issues of work, class, gender and community. She has published two edited books and more than 40 book chapters and articles in this field, based on research funded by, amongst others, the ESRC and the Nuffield Foundation.
Alena Rochovská is a Lecturer at Comenius University in Bratislava. Previously she worked as a Research Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London on the ESRC-funded project on ‘Social Exclusion, Spaces of Household Economic Practice and Post-Socialism’. She has published widely on the feminisation of poverty, feminist geography, and the geographies of social inequality in Slovakia.
Dariusz Świątek is a researcher at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organisation of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. He previously worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Newcastle on the ESRC-funded project on ‘Social Exclusion, Spaces of Household Economic Practice and Post-Socialism’. Swiatek has published widely on unemployment problems, housing market changes and the development of suburban areas in Poland.

"This book makes a valuable contribution to the theorization of neoliberalization by extending it to the realm of the everyday household economy. It is grounded in rich empirical research in working class neighbourhoods in Bratislava and Krakow and argues that households mitigate and tolerate the pernicious social costs of neoliberal reform to achieve social reproduction." (Yahoo Finance, 2 November 2010)

‘This richly comparative analysis of the neo-liberalization of everyday life in East Central Europe also sheds new light on the everyday lives of neo-liberalism. A marvellous book, it reveals how daily practices of coping, caring and consuming, productions and reproduction, have been bound into processes of “market transition”, proliferating alternative economies even in this no-alternative age.’
—Jamie Peck, University of British Columbia
‘This book makes a valuable contribution to the theorization of neo-liberalization by extending it to the realm of the everyday household economy. It is grounded in rich empirical research in working class neighbourhoods in Bratislava and Kraków and argues that households mitigate and tolerate the pernicious social costs of neo-liberal reform to achieve social reproduction.’
—Adam Swain, University of Nottingham

List of Plates, Figures and Tables.
Series Editor's Preface.
Preface and Acknowledgements.
1. Domesticating Neo-Liberalism and the Spaces of Post-Socialism.
2. Neo-Liberalism and Post-Socialist Transformations.
3. Domesticating Economies: Diverse Economic Practices, Households and Social Reproduction.
4. Work: Employment, Unemployment and the Negotiation of Labour Markets.
5. Housing: Markets, Assets and Social Reproduction.
6. Land and Food: Production, Consumption and Leisure.
7. Care: Family, Social Networks and the State.
8. Conclusion.
Bibliography.
Appendix 1: Summary Information on Interviewed Households.
Appendix 2: Semi-Structured Interviews with Key Informants.
Index.