Rianne Mahon

Stephen McBride

Gerard W. Boychuk

The 2007-08 financial crisis marked a turning point for social policy. World leaders were forced to take a position: Should they entrench neo-liberal policies in response to the crisis? Or should they implement alternative measures to challenge economics as usual? This volume explores how international organizations and nation states in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and North America responded to the recession. Contributors examine whether social policy followed a similar trajectory across countries and regions or whether their diverse national experiences produced equally diverse solutions.

Social Policy and the Global Financial Crisis

After '08

Derek Jarman

Ken Butler

Queer Edward II

Bryan M. Evans

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.

The Lived Experience

Austerity

Stephen McBride

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