The Financialisation of Social Reproduction in the Age of Neoliberalism: From Theory to Case Studies

Drawing from research across five countries, this book presents a comprehensive theoretical and empirical account of the social impact of financialisation.

Through case studies on housing, water, and health, Ben Fine traces the effects of financialisation on economic and social reproduction, alongside the corresponding material cultures of neoliberalism. Economic is understood as embedded within social reproduction, with neoliberalism, as the current stage of capitalism, fundamentally underpinned by, but not reducible to, the financialisation of everyday life. Considerable emphasis is placed upon the variegated outcomes attached to the neoliberalisation of social reproduction, as highlighted by the comparative study of economic and social provisioning across different countries and sectors.

Ben Fine is Emeritus Professor of Economics at SOAS University of and Visiting Professor at Wits School of Governance, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. His most recent books include Material Cultures of Financialisation, co-edited with Kate Bayliss and Mary Robertson (Routledge, 2018); Race, Class and the Post-Apartheid Democratic State, co-edited with John Reynolds and Robert van Niekerk (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2019); and A Guide to the Systems of Provision Approach: Who Gets What, How and Why, with Kate Bayliss (Palgrave, 2021). His Marx’s ‘Capital’ (Pluto, 2016) is now in its sixth edition (with co-author Alfredo Saad-Filho). He was founding Chair of the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (iippe.org) until June 2023.