The Just's Umbrella
Austerity and the Big Society in Coalition policy and beyond
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5779984 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ruth Levitas (University of Bristol, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 320-342 |
| Publication date | 2012-06-12 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Social Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0261-0183 • E-ISSN: 1461-703X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0261018312444408 |
| OpenAlex | W2146787946 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 92 |
| References cited | 13 |
The formation of the Coalition government in 2010 has resulted in unprecedented spending cuts presented as necessary austerity, together with the promotion of the 'Big Society' as the panacea for social ills. This article argues that the cuts continue a thirty-year process of redistribution to the rich. Rather than being a necessary response to the economic crisis, they constitute a neo-liberal shock doctrine, forcing through punitive policies which undermine the collective provision against risk that constitutes the 'just's umbrella'. However, arguments for reduced consumption and self-organization in civil society have purchase partly because of real needs for sustainable development and human well-being. Reading austerity and the Big Society through a 'hermeneutics of faith' rather than a 'hermeneutics of suspicion' opens up the utopian possibility of thinking holistically about an alternative, equitable, sustainable future radically different from that offered by conventional politics
Austerity · Big Society · Civil society · Coalition government · Doctrine · Faith · Grassroots · Panacea (medicine) · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Punitive damages · Sociology · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity · Law · Public Administration · Social Science and Policy Research
Sport Policy and Politics in an Era of Austerity
Cultural Policy is Local
Rural lives during Covid-19
Engaging Communities in the ‘Big Society’
Discursive institutions of austerity and social infrastructures of care
Imagine there’s no heaven
Austere Creativity and Volunteer-run Public Services
Putting Localism in Place
Reformas y nuevas prácticas del Estado en el desarrollo urbano después de la crisis financiera global de 2008
Queensland's Budget Austerity and Its Impact on Social Welfare
The possibilities and limits of political contestation in times of ‘urban austerity’
Rebuilding Authority in “Lumpen” Communities
The potential value of priority-setting methods in public health investment decisions
The Community Asset Transfer of Leisure Facilities in the UK
Introduction to the Special Issue “Sport for Social Inclusion
Social Exclusion and Austerity Policies in England
The changing face of social work
Between the state and the individual
The institutions and heterogeneous geographical relations of austerity
The Consequences of the Austerity Policies for Public Services in the UK
Grassroots solidarity structures in Greece as counterhegemonic practices contesting the dominant neoliberal hegemony
Children's necessities
Britain, Britishness, and exceptionalism within the rhetoric of David Cameron
Austerity, ageing and the financialisation of pensions policy in the UK
Coming to terms with the market
Making the most of children centre management data
From Consensus to Dissensus
Charitable purposes and the shaping effects of money
Coming Together or Drifting Apart? Income Maintenance in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom
Welfare Surveillance, Income Management and New Paternalism in Australia
Introduction
Teenage Mothers and Social Isolation
Risk, Social Inclusion and the Life Course – Review of Developments in Policy and Research
Austerity urbanism, local government debt-drive, and post Covid predicaments in Britain
Welfare Queens, Thrifty Housewives, and Do-It-All Mums
The Allure of the “Big Society”
Practising social work in a context of austerity
Social workers
The economic crisis as opportunity
Mapping the journey
Using or producing
Disabled people as counterfeit citizens
Care in a Time of Austerity
Social justice on the margins
Multi-level Systems and the Electoral Politics of Welfare Pluralism
The Role of Civil Society in the Labour Market Integration of Migrants in Europe
Social inequalities in rural England
Prioritisation in municipal service delivery management
Utopian Thinking, Social Work, and Homelessness
The potential impact of local commissioning on victim services in England and Wales
Community and prosperity beyond social capital
Social exclusion, neoliberalism and resistance
Why women’s domestic violence refuges are not local services
Neoliberalism and violence
Risking peace in the ‘war against the poor’? Social exclusion and the legacies of the Northern Ireland conflict
Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt’
Going from bad to worse? Social policy and the demise of the Social Fund
Let’s get real about the ‘riots’
A constant threat? A narrative exploration of the relationship between benefit receipt, mental distress and the threat of homelessness
Home space, gender and activism
The social inclusion policy agenda in Australia
Schools, student health and family welfare
I Am in a Constant State of Insecurity Trying to Make Ends Meet, like Our Service Users’
Distancing and limited resourcefulness
Recognition or Redistribution? How Mainstream Media Frames Charitable Responses to People Experiencing Poverty
Critical social work and the promotion of citizenship in Chile
They were chasing me down the streets”
Localism and the Big Society
Symposium Introduction
Querying the resilient local authority
Big change, little change? Punctuation, increments and multi-layer institutional change for English local authorities under austerity
Coping with the Cuts? The Management of the Worst Financial Settlement in Living Memory
Community resilience
Change? Decay? Promise? Fifty years of local government cultural services in the UK
Direito econômico e austeridade
Cooking and eating together in London
The Role of 'Persistent Resilience' within Everyday Life and Polity
Neoliberalism, Big Society, and Progressive Localism
Austerity urbanism in England
City government in an age of austerity
The affective life of austerity
Museums' community engagement schemes, austerity and practices of care in two local museum services
Progressive localism for an ethics of care
Thinking with 'White Dee
Riots, Restraint and the New Cultural Politics of Wanting
Collisions, Coalitions and Riotous Subjects
An Apotheosis of Well-Being
The Moral Repertoires Behind Social Citizenship
Resurgent charity and the neoliberalizing social
Governing austerity in the United Kingdom
Hope in a paranoid place? Critique, utopianism and prefigurative policy reform
All in it Together? Community Food Aid in a Multi-Ethnic Context
| Unique citing works | 92 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 7,08 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2026 (14) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 92 |