A Tale of Two Cities

Employer and Trade Union Responses to Local Government Retrenchment in Britain

Bibliographic Data

ID10755099
AuthorsStephen Bach (0009-0006-3622-7006, corresponding author), Alexandra Stroleny
Year2017
Volume59
Issue1
Publication date2017-01-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociologie du Travail (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0296 • E-ISSN: 1777-5701
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/sdt.544
OpenAlexW2586828302
LanguageEN
References cited29

This paper examines the strategies and dilemmas faced by local employers and trade unions in Britain in responding to austerity measures. Drawing on two local authority case studies this paper extends strategic choice analysis highlighting the use of pro-austerity and anti-austerity frames by local actors to advance their strategies. We challenge the dominant interpretation of austerity as signalling the triumph of neo-liberalism in which there is no scope for the exercise of strategic choice with the assumption Conservative and Labour councils pursue similar policies of outsourcing and wage cuts. Our findings consider austerity as practice as well as ideology and indicate variable responses at local level by employers and trade unions. These differentiated outcomes underline the divergent policy responses to the economic crisis between and within countries

Austerity · Economics · Ideology · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Welfare economics · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies