Austerity

There can be little doubt that austerity has greatly impacted society in the ten years since it was implemented. Touted as a short, sharp adjustment to the economy in the wake of the 2008/09 financial crisis, the cuts and slashing of the welfare state has caused a multitude of harms to individuals, communities and society as a whole as a result.

Seven years since the publication of her book, Austerity Bites, Mary O'Hara talks in this Guardian article, about how austerity has wrecked lives and normalised hardship.

In this Transforming Society article, David Etherington, author of Austerity, Welfare and Work, explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the huge social and economic divisions caused by austerity and how we can create a more socially just model.

As a publisher who has had tackling inequality at its heart for 25 years, we have published many research outputs that tackle the topic of austerity.

Selected titles

A selection of related journal articles

Journal of Poverty and Social Justice

Tax reform and redistribution for a better recovery

‘Period poverty’ in Stoke-on-Trent, UK: new insights into gendered poverty and the lived experiences of austerity

Childcare costs and Universal Credit: awareness, affordability and the challenge of an embedded system

Timing it right or timing it wrong: how should income-tested benefits deal with changes in circumstances?

Universal simplicity? The alleged simplicity of Universal Credit from administrative and claimant perspectives

‘We’ve got a file on you’: problematising families in poverty in four periods of austerity

Mind the gaps: Universal Credit and self-employment in the United Kingdom

Critical and Radical Social Work

Entering precarious job markets in the era of austerity measures: the perceptions of Master of Social Work students

The effects of an exclusionary bursary policy on student social workers: an exploratory qualitative study on the effects of the 2013 policy to cap the allocation of bursaries in England 

Articles on Transforming Society

Austerity and the COVID-19 crisis: There is another way by David Etherington
What if Cameron’s austerity had been “harder and faster”? by Sue Konzelmann
Living a life that is affected by austerity feels like a judgement by Emily Green
May can say all she likes that austerity is over – the people affected know the truth by Mary O'Hara

Read Transforming Society here.