Dr Will Atkinson (University of Bristol)
Everyday Life in Austerity Britain
4.30pm, Room 916, Adam Smith Building

This paper examines the consequences of the recent economic cataclysm and subsequent political ploys on routine, everyday life. Drawing on in-depth, intensive research with thirty families in Bristol, it documents the fears, tensions, worries and pains pervading domestic milieus thanks to the banking-bred recession and swingeing government cuts, and the multiple sacrifices, relentless cutbacks and debilitating deprivations manifest in the smallest of shopping behaviours to the biggest of work-life decisions. Whilst it will endeavour to show that this pernicious scenario, the product of the power struggles and political dogmas of the elite, is widespread, the inescapable reality is that those with more limited social, economic and cultural resources are hit hardest as they lack the safety nets, the alternative options and the buffers to successfully navigate the era of austerity.

All Welcome

Supported by the McFie Bequest

Any enquiries about the seminar programme should be addressed to:
Dr Kirsteen Paton, Sociology, Adam Smith Building, University of Glasgow G12 8RT
Tel: 0141 330 5070 or email: Kirsteen.Paton@glasgow.ac.uk

First published: 4 November 2011

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