Given the number of times I’ve argued with him on Twitter, it was a surprise to discover quite how much I like Steve Hall’s work. There’s an unapologetic bleakness to it which I find appealing, not as a matter of aesthetics but rather… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘austerity’
Academics as bullshit detectors
I love this idea from the introduction to Mark Blyth’s book Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea: Part of what academics do is generate ideas and teach. The other, perhaps more important part, is to play the role of “the… Read More ›
I Daniel Blake
How amazing does Ken Loach’s new film look?
‘Clean for the Queen’: Toryism, Elitism and Austerity
by Laura Clancy Despite appearing to be a sycophantic fantasy, Clean for the Queen is actually a real thing. Launched by (aristocratic-loving) Country Life magazine and Keep Britain Tidy, ‘Clean for the Queen’ is billed as ‘a campaign to… Read More ›
The hollowing out of local government in the UK
This agenda has gone very far in an extremely short space of time: Councils of all stripes have been outsourcing for decades, which is why your local traffic warden is usually tramping the streets on behalf of a private firm…. Read More ›
CfP: The Neoliberal University: Gender, Class, & Sexuality
This panel intends to investigate processes of bureaucratization and business-afication of the university and the role that these have in re-shaping the interrelations of class, gender, and sexuality; and the specific ways that the change from educational pedagogy to business… Read More ›
What will post-democracy look like?
As anyone who reads my blog regularly might have noticed, I’m a fan of Colin Crouch’s notion of post-democracy. I’ve interviewed him about it a couple of times: once in 2010 and again in 2013. Whereas he’d initially offered the notion to illuminate… Read More ›
What will neo-neoliberal ideology look like?
Do you remember compassionate conservatism? It seemed vacuous when promulgated by George Bush pre-9/11 and even more so when David Cameron was going through his ‘hug a husky’ phase pre-crisis. It still seems vacuous now, at the point of its purported resurgence, though… Read More ›
Tales of single parenthood in austerity Britain
Great article in the Lacuna magazine discussing the hardships of single parenting in contemporary Britain and what the benefits system and employment policies are doing wrong. (Also, a great example of sociological writing with interviews). Down the Rabbit Hole: Single… Read More ›
The politics of austerity
Richard Seymour had a thoughtful and incisive analysis in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago, released around the same time as his new book on austerity (see the video above). It addresses what I take to be the questions which the left has… Read More ›
CfP: Social and Political Critique in the Age of Austerity
Social and Political Critique in the Age of Austerity A one day workshop at Keele University 10.30am-6pm, Wednesday 12th February, 2014 This one day workshop is devoted to the discussion of critical politics in the contemporary age of austerity. Following… Read More ›
After Neoliberalism? The Kilburn Manifesto
It’s become almost platitudinious to observe how little the political underpinnings of the neoliberal economic settlement were impacted upon by the financial crisis. The Kilburn Manifesto brings together some leading lights of the British left to offer a systematic response… Read More ›
The virtue of selfishness in austerity times
Who are the really selfish people in our society? Why should I pay to support you and yours? Why can’t I keep what I earn? Surely charity begins at home? In this guest blog Anita Biressi and Heather Nunn explore the… Read More ›
“Stop living off the state” demands The King of the Netherlands
King Willem-Alexander, alongside his wife, Queen Maxima, told the Dutch people that they must create their own social and financial safety nets, and that looking to the state for help was a thing of the 20th century. The speech was… Read More ›
CfP: Hard Times – Austerity and Popular Culture
Although the British Prime Minister David Cameron popularised the renowned axiom ‘the age of austerity’ in a speech of 2009, political discourse has long given shape to popular rhetoric on the subject. The sentiments of ‘make do and mend’ and… Read More ›
Sociology’s ‘Moments’: Democracy, Expertise and the Market by John Holmwood
The videos from this year’s British Sociological Association conference have been released. You can find the full set here – the video above is from John Holmwood’s plenary. As we paraphrased its conclusion while live tweeting at the time: The… Read More ›
CfP: Hard Times – Austerity and Popular Culture
Although the British Prime Minister David Cameron popularised the renowned axiom ‘the age of austerity’ in a speech of 2009, political discourse has long given shape to popular rhetoric on the subject. The sentiments of ‘make do and mend’ and… Read More ›
Economists and the Politics of Austerity
This wonderful post by Simon Wren-Lewis, who is far and away my favourite economics blogger, gets to the heart of austerity politics and its implications for economics as an academic discipline. The underlying question has long fascinated me: are economic ideas… Read More ›
“Where the fuck do they get their shit from!?”: Reality Television, Austerity Politics and Digital Public Sociology
It was with some trepidation that I found myself watching Nick and Margaret’s We All Pay Your Benefits. This unspeakably contemptible show is presented as an “ambitious experiment” in which Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford (who weirdly enough finished a PhD in papyrology at… Read More ›
Caught Between Zombies and Chavs? The aesthetics of the crowd in an age of austerity
I love book shops. There are few things in life that give me greater pleasure then entering a book shop to choose a book at random. While I occasionally buy some utter crap through the enthusiastically scattergun approach I take… Read More ›
The task of Sociology in an age of austerity? Reflecting on #BritSoc13
The task of Sociology in an age of austerity is to occupy public debate and make inequality matter #BritSoc13 — Socio Imagination (@Soc_Imagination) April 3, 2013 This is a tweeted paraphrase of how BSA president John Holmwood described the task… Read More ›
SI weekend reading: Golden Dawn
“SI weekend reading: Golden Dawn” on Bundlr
The Counterfeiters (part 2)
Too much for sale? The myth of Europe is a Greek invention and so is tragedy and drama. What follows, amounts to no more than dramaturgical field-notes from the country’s trials, tribulations as well as its responsibilities and duties, not… Read More ›
The Counterfeiters (part 1)
‘As I write, highly civilised human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me. They do not feel any enmity against me as individual, nor I against them. They are “only doing their duty”, as the saying goes. Most of… Read More ›
Greece vs. Germany or “The bailout game”: Politics and Football in the Greek media
The Greek MYPLACE team at Panteion University of Social And Political Sciences present their latest blog on the political background to Greece’s Euro 2012 football quarter final against Germany. For more information on the MYPLACE project, visit the project’s website HERE or the project’s blog HERE. You… Read More ›
‘Generation Normal’—alternative views on politics in the Eurozone.
As the European Union is navigating through the troubled waters of the financial crisis, with the Greek ship on the brink of sinking, and many other countries at risk of following the same fate, new political currents are emerging—calling for… Read More ›