ABSTRACT
After the 1981 earthquake, families were rehoused in the outskirts of Naples, their networks, and the well-established established flow of goods and services, as well as the links between outworkers, artisans and enterprises, were interrupted. The case of women is particularly significant because their actions are especially over-determined: by the household division of labour, by the labour-market, by ideologies of gender and familism. These conditions inform the construction of the subjectivity of women and men, which again shapes their aspirations, their choices and their capacities to deal with the challenges of everyday life. Neapolitan identity derives much of its symbolic repertoire from the domestic sphere, and especially from the intimate relationships generated by love – and especially the nurturing love of the mother. As in the survival strategies of the poor and the struggle to improve the conditions of at least some of the members of the family, too much of the burden has been placed on the family.
