Paper short abstract:

In times of Crisis people engage in innovative forms of collaboration to ensure reproduction. From an ethnographic study of every-day strategies to get by in Portugal I argue that overcoming disposition produced by austerity produces new forms of inequality.

Paper long abstract:

Portugal is undergoing a wide socio-economic crisis (with increasing rates of unemploymentand immigration , low family income, and a growing aged population) with rigid austerity long term policies. Faced with the failing capability of state care systems to continue to provide support, people (re)turn to informal ways to overcome their precarious situation creating new forms of colaboration and solidarity.

By setting extremely precarious ways of living, the 'state of emergency' Portugal lives in, stimulates creativity and innovation not only at the economic but in the social and moral realms as well. From an ethnographic study of every-day strategies to get by in Portugal, in this paper I will analyze how people deal with the uncertainty produced by austerity policies and ensure their subsistence. This paper will debate how informal practices driven by collective responsibility sometimes support national economies in uncertainty contexts produced in uncertainty contexts produced in times of crises.