Publisher Description

When the Coalition Government came to power in 2010 in claimed it would deliver not just austerity, as necessary as that apparently was, but also fairness. This volume subjects this pledge to critical interrogation by exposing the interests behind the policy programme pursued and their damaging effects on class inequalities. Situated within a recognition of the longer-term rise of neoliberal politics, reflections on the status of sociology as a source of critique and current debates over the relationship between the cultural and economic dimensions of social class, the contributors cover an impressively wide range of relevant topics, from education, family policy and community to crime and consumption, shedding new light on the experience of domination in the early 21st Century.

Author Biography

WILL ATKINSON British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol, UKHARRIET BRADLEY Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Senior Research Fellow in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol, UKMATT CLEMENT Associate Lecturer in the Department of Health and Applied Social Science at the University of the West of England, UKSARAH EVANS Engagement Manager for the Social Sciences at the British Library, UKVAL GILLIES Research Professor within the Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research and the Families & Social Capital Research Group at London South Bank University, UKNICOLA INGRAM Research Assistant in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol, UKLISA MCKENZIE Leverhulme Research Fellow in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Nottingham, UKDIANE REAY Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge, UKSTEVE ROBERTS Lecturer in Lifelong and Work-Related Learning in the Education School at the University of Southampton, UKMIKE SAVAGE Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at the University or York, UKANDREW SAYER Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Lancaster, UK

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Critical Sociology of the Age of Austerity; W.Atkinson, S.Roberts & M.Savage Economic Crisis and Classed Everyday Life: Hysteresis, Positional Suffering and Symbolic Violence; W.Atkinson "We never get a fair chance": Working-class Experiences of Education in the Twenty-First Century; D.Reay Banking on the Future: Choices, Aspirations and Economic Hardship in Working-class Student Experience; H.Bradley & N.Ingram "Aspirations" and Imagined Futures: The Im/possibilities for Britain's Young Working Class; S.Roberts & S.Evans Personalising Poverty: Parental Determinism and the "Big Society" Agenda; V.Gillies The Urban Outcasts of the British City; M.Clement The Devalued and Stigmatized Working Class: The State of a Council Estate; L.McKenzie Broken Communities?; M.Savage Facing the Challenge of the Return of the Rich; A.Sayer Conclusion: Three Challenges to the Exportation of Sociological Knowledge; W.Atkinson, S.Roberts & M.Savage

Review

'A timely and welcome attempt to make a public debate about enforced austerity and amplified entitlements. Drawing on substantive research findings from experts across a wide range of fields, the book is essential reading for those who want to understand what is really happening at the moment. It reveals how it is not just the economy and politics that are being radically reshaped but people's hopes, desires and futures.' - Beverley Skeggs, Professor of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK'Everyone wondered whether the 'Big Society', was just the latest example of political gesturing, blaming the poor for their poverty and suggesting that only those with the time and money to provide their own services deserve them? Are you, your friends and neighbours at risk of been duped into thinking that working-class communities in Britain are 'broken' and in need of punitive intervention? Then read Class Inequality in Austerity Britain: Power, Difference and Suffering.' - Danny Dorling, Professor of Human Geography, University of Sheffield, UK

Long Description

When the Coalition Government came to power in 2010 in claimed it would deliver not just austerity, as necessary as that apparently was, but also fairness. This volume subjects this pledge to critical interrogation by exposing the interests behind the policy programme pursued and their damaging effects on class inequalities. Situated within a recognition of the longer-term rise of neoliberal politics, reflections on the status of sociology as a source of critique and current debates over the relationship between the cultural and economic dimensions of social class, the contributors cover an impressively wide range of relevant topics, from education, family policy and community to crime and consumption, shedding new light on the experience of domination in the early 21st Century.

Review Quote

'A timely and welcome attempt to make a public debate about enforced austerity and amplified entitlements. Drawing on substantive research findings from experts across a wide range of fields, the book is essential reading for those who want to understand what is really happening at the moment. It reveals how it is not just the economy and politics that are being radically reshaped but people's hopes, desires and futures.' - Beverley Skeggs, Professor of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK 'Everyone wondered whether the 'Big Society', was just the latest example of political gesturing, blaming the poor for their poverty and suggesting that only those with the time and money to provide their own services deserve them? Are you, your friends and neighbours at risk of been duped into thinking that working-class communities in Britain are 'broken' and in need of punitive intervention? Then read Class Inequality in Austerity Britain: Power, Difference and Suffering.' - Danny Dorling, Professor of Human Geography, University of Sheffield, UK

Description for Bookstore

This volume explores the impact of the economic crisis and austerity measures on social class inequality in the UK

Details