Austerity: The Lived Experience

by Bryan Evans (Editor), Stephen McBride (Editor)

Bryan M. Evans, Stephen McBride, and their contributors delve further into the more practical, ground-level side of the austerity equation in Austerity: The Lived Experience . Economically, austerity policies cannot be seen to work in the way elite interests claim that they do. Rather than soften the blow of the economic and financial crisis of 2008 for ordinary citizens, policies of austerity slow growth and lead to increased inequality. While political consent for such policies may have been achieved, it was reached amidst significant levels of disaffection and strong opposition to the extremes of austerity. The authors build their analysis in three sections, looking alternatively at theoretical and ideological dimensions of the lived experience of austerity; how austerity plays out in various public sector occupations and policy domains; and the class dimensions of austerity. The result is a ground-breaking contribution to the study of austerity politics and policies.

368 pages, Paperback

Published October 4, 2017

Reviews

[Yu · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, thank you for giving me the chance of reviewing the book. I think it is a wonderful book. It definitely needs more attention than it already attracted. Perhaps "austerity" is still a far away concept in nowadays, it is rather the word that people will connect with their grandparents generation. But as the world develops, internationally, from various aspects, austerity emerges back to people's perspective. Second, this book is well organised, and especially well written. People don't feel the fatigue of academic writing while reading it. It covers economic aspects, politics, most importantly, populism is also covered. It fits to the nowadays world. I would recommend it to all academic fellows who are dealing with the same domain.

[kathyrn]

Thanks to netgalley and University of Toronto Press for making the ARC availible on netgalley.
from the description

Economically, austerity policies cannot be seen to work in the way elite interests claim that they do.
Rather than soften the blow of the economic and financial crisis of 2008 for ordinary citizens, policies of austerity slow growth and lead to increased inequality.
While political consent for such policies may have been achieved, it was reached amidst significant levels of disaffection and strong opposition to the extremes of austerity.
The authors build their analysis in three sections,
looking alternatively at theoretical and ideological dimensions of the lived experience of austerity;
how austerity plays out in various public sector occupations and policy domains;
and the class dimensions of austerity.
The result is a ground-breaking contribution to the study of austerity politics and policies