This book investigates the struggles for hegemony, and a possible ¿crisis of crisis management¿ at the core of Italy¿s political economy. With a specific focus on the conflict over the 2012 labour market reform, the book also explores the country¿s trajectory in the area of economic and social reproduction. It presents a framework for critical policy analysis that draws on cultural political economy and explores its potential synergies with complementary approaches such as historical materialist policy analysis and critical discourse analysis. Readers will gain an understanding of crisis dynamics in the aftermath of 2008, and insights into related political reactions. The book will also help them develop the analytical tools needed to make sense of these puzzling phenomena.

¿Daniela Caterina holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Hamburg, Germany, and is currently a Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, School of Humanities of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China. Her research focuses on, among others, critical political economy, materialist state theory, discourse analysis, European integration and Italian politics.

Introduction.- Between Semiosis and Materiality: Theoretical Cornerstones.- Investigating Hegemony Struggles: A Transdisciplinary Research Framework in Three Steps.- Between Continuity and Change in Italy's Political Economy.- Shifting Patterns in Italy's Function of Social Reproduction: From Welfare to Workfare.- Italy's Political Economy Between Crisis and Crisis Management.- Italy's Function of Social Reproduction in Times of Crisis.- Conflicting Political Projects in the Debate Over the 2012 Labour Market Reform.- From Political Projects to Hegemony Projects in the Crisis.- Conclusions.