Making Death and Life in Palestine
Social Reproduction in Settler Colonialism
Susan Ferguson editor Tithi Bhattacharya editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Pluto Press
Publishing:20th Oct '25
£18.99
This title is due to be published on 20th October, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
Social reproduction theory is a big idea. It explores how the daily renewal of human life, and therefore human labour, is essential to capitalism. Here, leading feminists come together to apply the theory to one of its most extreme settings - that of Palestine.
Israel’s settler colonialism is premised on the eradication of Palestinian lives, undermining Palestinian social reproduction at every turn. This project, which ramped up after October 7th, does have a logic, and by examining the concrete, historically specific details, the authors begin to reshape and refine the theory of Social Reproduction, shedding light on why Israel’s assault is so brutal.
Chapters look at Israel’s mass murder of a generation of Palestinians in Gaza, the effects of ecocide, the relationship between land dispossession and class, Israel’s selective pronatalism, scholasticide and other topics. By understanding this deadly logic, we can look deeper into the heart of the evils of capitalism, and stand in solidarity with Palestine.
'In this important edited volume, two pioneering figures in Social Reproduction Theory, Tithi Bhattacharya and Sue Ferguson, extend their framework beyond the working-class struggle for life in advanced capitalist societies, accounting for the specificity of settler-colonial capitalism. The essays they have assembled here urgently address the contemporary case study of Palestine in the horrific era of the Gaza genocide. They reveal the intensity of the battle between the exterminationist death-making force of Israeli colonialism and the Palestinian determination to produce and sustain a flourishing and liberated collective life'
-- Abdel Razzaq Takriti, Palestinian Historian and Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair in Arab Studies, Rice University'A theoretically grounded and politically urgent book that reminds us of beauty, resistance and courage at a time in which Israel’s genocide wants us to succumb to despair and the feeling of powerlessness. Palestinians continue to teach us life, as they have done for over 75 years. They show us that affirming life against capital’s death drive and settler colonialism in the midst of unspeakable atrocity is the only way forward. Everyone should read this book!'
-- Sara Farris, Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of LoISBN: 9780745351063
Dimensions: 216mm x 140mm x 13mm
Weight: unknown
192 pages