Necropolitics, state of acceptance and precarious life
Accounting for austerity in English local government 2010–2024
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20201097 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Laurence Ferry (0000-0002-6686-4528, Durham University Department of Accounting), Dior Ferry (Independent Researcher , ,) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-25 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-08 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Public Budgeting Accounting & Financial Management (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1096-3367 • E-ISSN: 1945-1814 |
| Publisher | Emerald (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1108/jpbafm-12-2025-0397 |
| OpenAlex | W7151545552 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 54 |
Purpose Austerity policies have arguably created a politics of living death that is symptomatic of necropolitics, but for normalised everyday life. This involves moving beyond the state of exception of crisis, where groups are subject to immediate violence that is often more visible, to a slow violence that is gradual and less visible, dispersed across time and space, and attritional, so may not even be viewed as violence at all. The slow violence in turn leads to slow death and precarious life that involves a state of acceptance among those affected and citizens in general. Through theorisation of necropolitics as a state of acceptance, the purpose of this article is to consider how life chances were affected through the role of accounting, auditing and accountability arrangements. Design/methodology/approach To do so, the article looks over more than a decade of austerity policies from the Conservative government on local authorities in England, following the 2007/08 financial crisis from 2010 to 2024. It provides a more top-down perspective of austerity to capture policy and oversight rather than the lived experiences of austerity by the grassroots. Nevertheless, to ameliorate any shortcomings, the article has leveraged existing bottom-up counter-account studies. Findings The article shows that from the slow burn of austerity cuts, through the slow violence of accounting and slow death to performance, there is a state of acceptance for precarious life among citizens towards fellow groups. The lack of adequate audit and accountability arrangements to report on the financial and performance issues, and a reduced media presence, has exacerbated the acceptability of precarious life. Originality/value This is the first article to consider the accounting impacts and implications inherent in a necropolitics, state of acceptance and precarious everyday life relating to local government
Accountability · Audit · Austerity · Local government · Politics · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Public Policy and Administration Research · Urban Planning and Governance
Revolting Subjects
A thanatopolitical visualisation of accounting history
Accountability as mourning
The Death of Others. On the Narrative Rhetoric of Neoliberal Thanatopolitics
Authoritarian Neoliberalism and Asylum Seekers
A Polyphonic Debate on Social Equity Budgeting
An international comparative study of the audit and accountability arrangements of supreme audit institutions
Financial resilience of English local government in the aftermath of Covid-19
Technologies of the Human Corpse
The necropolitics of Covid-19
Slow violence and toxic geographies
The futility of participation
Biopower under a state of exception
Bearing the burden of austerity
A Practice of Fairness”
Progressive localism and the construction of political alternatives
Shame on Us
Local governance under the Conservatives
Thanatopolitics
Toxic Space and Time
Necropolitics
Slow Death (Sovereignty, Obesity, Lateral Agency)
Governing economic life
| Highly cited | No |
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