​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.