ABSTRACT
Despite the global financial crisis since 2007, neoliberalism has continued to reign supreme. And yet, there is one area which defies the dominant trend: water. Based on a conceptualisation of structure and agency, which emphasises the internal relations between the structuring conditions of the capitalist social relations of production and class agency, this chapter provides an analysis of resistance against the privatisation of water. Drawing on the empirical examples of the Italian referendum against water privatisation in 2011, the European Citizens Initiative ‘Water is a Human Right’ in 2012/2013 as well as current resistance against water privatisation in Greece, it will be argued that we can only understand this type of contestation, if we conceptualise resistance across the spheres of production and social reproduction. While a focus on the commons indicates steps towards transformation beyond capitalism, the current crisis conditions in the global economy have severely undermined the various successes of resistance against water privatisation.
