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Countless research studies have demonstrated the detrimental effects of incivility and bullying in healthcare. Despite the abundance of proposed solutions to this issue, many healthcare leaders continue to fail in mitigating the existence of such negative behaviors in the workplace. Personality attributes of perpetrators and victims have received attention, but much less research has examined the organizational and neoliberal causations of incivility and bullying in healthcare. Being the largest occupational group in the health sector, nursing professionals have the greatest influence and are crucial in ending these behaviors. This discussion paper outlines the effects of incivility and bullying in healthcare and provides a critical analysis on how organizational culture and neoliberal ideology influence the pervasiveness and persistence of these negative behaviors. The analysis reveals that organizational cultures that misuse power, disregard equality, and facilitate oppression, foster the existence of incivility and bullying in the workplace. Such cultures permit perpetrators to misuse their authority to control resource allocation, ignorance to social inequalities, and the silence of victims. Furthermore, the neoliberal concept of deregulation, austerity, and individualism further these behaviors. The neoliberal reforms have led to underfunding of anti-bullying programs and policies, use of bullying behaviours as management strategies, and victim-blaming for profit maximization. Financial cutbacks have resulted in denial and acceptance of uncivil and bullying behaviours in healthcare institutions, which endangers the rights of healthcare providers to a safe workplace environment. To curtail these negative behaviors, robust anti-bullying policies and programs must be strictly enforced and sustained in practice. Further exploration on the association of organizational culture and neoliberal principles to incivility and bullying in healthcare is greatly warranted.

Driven by interests in workforce planning and patient safety, a growing body of literature has begun to identify the reality and the prevalence of missed nursing care, also specified as care left undone, rationed care or unfinished care. Empirical studies and conceptual considerations have focused on structural issues such as staffing, as well as on outcome issues – missed care/unfinished care. Philosophical and ethical aspects of unfinished care are largely unexplored. Thus, while internationally studies highlight instances of covert rationing/missed care/care left undone – suggesting that nurses, in certain contexts, are actively engaged in rationing care – in terms of the nursing and nursing ethics literature, there appears to be a dearth of explicit decision-making frameworks within which to consider rationing of nursing care. In reality, the assumption of policy makers and health service managers is that nurses will continue to provide full care – despite reducing staffing levels and increased patient turnover, dependency and complexity of care. Often, it would appear that rationing/missed care/nursing care left undone is a direct response to overwhelming demands on the nursing resource in specific contexts. A discussion of resource allocation and rationing in nursing therefore seems timely. The aim of this discussion paper is to consider the ethical dimension of issues of resource allocation and rationing as they relate to nursing care and the distribution of the nursing resource. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This article is based upon work from COST Action RANCARE CA15208, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). peer-reviewed

In this article, by showing that the burden of retrenchment in social spending in Brazil has been overwhelmingly borne by women, we assert that austerity is not gender neutral. Our research investigates the specificities of the gendered impacts of austerity in the country that have rendered Brazilian women structurally more vulnerable to the Covid-19 crisis. We base our argument on a comprehensive literature review summarizing the links between austerity and gender. In the Brazilian case, we explain women's vulnerability in two main aspects: (1) the direct and indirect gendered impacts of austerity in Brazil since 2015, examining the underfunding of policies prior to the pandemic; (2) the gendered effects of the pandemic on already vulnerable groups, amplified by the underfunded policies and the lack of appropriate measures. We show points of proximity between the existing literature on austerity and gender in the Global North and the urgent, structural Brazilian problems.

Your recent Editor’s Choice singles out David Cameron as “flummoxed” by questions about food banks in the leaders’ interviews.1 You then imply “a link between the current government’s austerity policies and food insecurity” when introducing Loopstra and colleagues’ paper.2 This paper shows that food bank establishment and activity correlates with markers of economic hardship and previous local food bank activity. The evidence …

Health and care policy is increasingly promoted within competitive city‐region visions. Based on a two‐year study of health and social care devolution in Greater Manchester, England, we demonstrate how the “local problem” of governing health and care amid austerity politics was rearticulated as a “global opportunity” to forge new connections between place, health, and economy. The paper foregrounds the multiple tensions and contradictions accumulating through turning to health and care to push the city‐region further, faster., Health and care policy is increasingly promoted within visions of the competitive city‐region. This paper examines the importance of policy boosterism within the political construction of city‐regions in the context of English devolution. Based on a two‐year case study of health and social care devolution in Greater Manchester, England, we trace the relational and territorial geographies of policy across and through new “devolved” city‐regional arrangements. Contributing to geographical debates on policy assemblages and city‐regionalism, we advance a conceptual framework linking crisis and opportunity, emulation and exceptionalism, and evidence and experimentation. The paper makes two key contributions. First, we argue health and care policy is increasingly drawn towards the logic of global competitiveness without being wholly defined by neoliberal political agendas. Fostering transnational policy networks helped embed global “best practice” policies while simultaneously hailing Greater Manchester as a place beyond compare. Second, we caution against positioning the city‐region solely at the receiving end of devolutionary austerity. Rather, we illustrate how the urgency of devolution was conditioned by crisis, yet concomitantly framed as a unique opportunity by the local state harnessing policy to negotiate a more fluid politics of scale. In doing so, the paper demonstrates how attempts to resolve the “local problem” of governing health and care under austerity were rearticulated as a “global opportunity” to forge new connections between place, health, and economy. Consequently, we foreground the multiple tensions and contradictions accumulating through turning to health and care to push Greater Manchester further, faster. The paper concludes by asking what the present crisis might mean for city‐regions in good health and turbulent times.

This multi‐authored contribution explores what the COVID‐19 pandemic demands of critical inquiry with a focus on the more‐than‐human. We show how COVID‐19 is a complex series of multispecies encounters shaped by humans, non‐human animals, and of course viruses. Central to these encounters is a politics of difference in which certain human lives are protected and helped to flourish while others, both human and animal, are forgotten if not sacrificed. Such difference encompasses practices of racialisation and racism, healthcare austerity, the circulation of capital, border‐making, intervention into non‐human nature, wildlife trade bans, anthropocentrism, and the exploitation of animal test subjects. The contributions highlight how COVID‐19 provides a needed opportunity to unite new materialist and anti‐racist, anti‐colonial scholarship as well as reimagine more radically sustainable multispecies futures. This requires embracing anti‐colonial humility, confronting debts owed to lab animal frontline workers, and rethinking economic systems that helped unleash COVID‐19 and ensured it became a disaster.

Background In 2010, the UK government implemented austerity measures, involving reductions to public spending and welfare reform. We aimed to systematically review the relationship of austerity policies with food insecurity including foodbank use in the UK. Methods We undertook a narrative systematic review (CRD42020164508) and searched seven databases, grey literature, and reference lists through September 2020. Studies with austerity policies (including welfare reform) as exposure and food insecurity (including foodbank use as a proxy) as study outcome were included. We included quantitative longitudinal and cross-sectional studies. Two reviewers assessed eligibility, extracted data directly from studies, and undertook quality assessment. Findings Eight studies were included: two individual-level studies totalling 4129 participants and six ecological studies. All suggested a relationship between austerity and increased food insecurity. Two studies found that austerity policies were associated with increased food insecurity in European countries including the UK. Six studies found that the welfare reform aspect of UK austerity policies was associated with increased food insecurity and foodbank use. Sanctions involving delays to benefits as a response to a claimant not actively seeking work may increase food insecurity, with studies finding that increases of 100 sanctions per 100,000 people may have led to increases of between 2 and 36 food parcels per 100,000 population. Interpretation UK austerity policies were consistently linked to food insecurity and foodbank use. Policymakers should consider impacts of austerity on food insecurity when considering how to reduce budget deficits. Funding NIHR School for Public Health Research.

En el desarrollo del presente documento se realiza un trabajo analítico argumentativo ya que se tomará información de la política pública cero papel su importancia en las entidades territoriales del país y el análisis que se presenta sobre su implementación, o por el contrario es una ilusión que no podrá llevarse a la realidad mientras los gobiernos territoriales no se tomen medidas de fomento, seguimiento y control frente al consumo ineficiente de papel y poco fomento de cultura sobre su uso en la administración pública, sumados las anteriores a la no contribución del principio de austeridad y el aumento de gastos de funcionamiento en los presupuestos de las entidades, la falta de estímulo y no aprovechamiento de las herramientas tecnológicas con lo que se cuenta en la actualidad la administración pública que buscan contribuir a la gestión de tiempos y eficiencia administrativa por ello surge el interrogante: ¿LA POLÍTICA CERO PAPELES ILUSIÓN O REALIDAD EN LAS ENTIDADES TERRITORIALES? In the development of this document, an argumentative analytical work is carried out since zero-role public policy information will be taken on its importance in the territorial entities of the country and the analysis presented on its implementation, or on the contrary it is an illusion that does not may be brought to reality as long as territorial governments do not take measures to promote, monitor and control the inefficient consumption of paper and little promotion of culture over its use in public administration, together with the previous ones to the non-contribution of the austerity principle and the increase of operating expenses in the budgets of the entities, the lack of stimulus and non-use of the technological tools that currently have public administration that seek to contribute to the management of time and administrative efficiency therefore arises Question: DOES THE ZERO POLICY PAPERS ILLUSION OR REALITY IN THE TERRITORIAL ENTITIES?

Background The steep rise in the rate of psychiatric hospital detentions in England is poorly understood. Aims To identify explanations for the rise in detentions in England since 1983; to test their plausibility and support from evidence; to develop an explanatory model for the rise in detentions. Method Hypotheses to explain the rise in detentions were identified from previous literature and stakeholder consultation. We explored associations between national indicators for potential explanatory variables and detention rates in an ecological study. Relevant research was scoped and the plausibility of each hypothesis was rated. Finally, a logic model was developed to illustrate likely contributory factors and pathways to the increase in detentions. Results Seventeen hypotheses related to social, service, legal and data-quality factors. Hypotheses supported by available evidence were: changes in legal approaches to patients without decision-making capacity but not actively objecting to admission; demographic changes; increasing psychiatric morbidity. Reductions in the availability or quality of community mental health services and changes in police practice may have contributed to the rise in detentions. Hypothesised factors not supported by evidence were: changes in community crisis care, compulsory community treatment and prescribing practice. Evidence was ambiguous or lacking for other explanations, including the impact of austerity measures and reductions in National Health Service in-patient bed numbers. Conclusions Better data are needed about the characteristics and service contexts of those detained. Our logic model highlights likely contributory factors to the rise in detentions in England, priorities for future research and potential policy targets for reducing detentions.

Background In Greece it is quite common for family members to provide informal unpaid care for another family member during hospitalization, alongside healthcare professionals. Understaffing and lack of nursing personnel, due to austerity measures implemented in Greece during the last eight years, force families to provide informal care during hospitalization. The aim of the research was to study the role of informal caregivers (IC) during a family's member hospitalization, factors affecting their presence and patient's needs that were met by them. Material and methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in five medical wards of a tertiary general hospital in big city of Northern Greece, during 14 weeks using a questionnaire with demographics, clinical data, and type and frequency of interventions performed by ICs. Patient/nurse ratio was also recorded. Results On the total, 210 ICs participated (63.42% response rate). The vast majority of ICs were females, married, close relatives and in their late forties. More than half of them (58.1%, n=122) stayed by their patient bedside for more than 17 hours per day, as it was found that 13.8 patients were allocated to each nurse. Less than one quarter of ICs reported that their patient's status was not serious at all and according to them, one third of the patients were totally dependent and one fifth were totally self-sufficient and able to take care of themselves. Nineteen out of the twenty three interventions performed by caregivers were interventions of basic nursing care. Conclusion The GHS administration officials are called to consider nursing understaffing in order to provide adequate and safe care. As new personnel is very difficult to be hired, family members could be trained, through structured programs, in basic nursing skills and interventions, so that they could participate in their family member's care and provide continuity of care at home.

Research ethics anew gained importance due to the changing scientific landscape and increasing demands and competition in the academic field. These changes are further exaggerated because of scarce(r) resources in some countries on the one hand and advances in genomics on the other. In this paper, we will highlight the current challenges thereof to scientific integrity. To mark key developments in research ethics, we will distinguish between what we call research ethics 1.0 and research ethics 2.0. Whereas research ethics 1.0 focuses on individual integrity and informed consent, research ethics 2.0 entails social scientific integrity within a broader perspective of a research network. This research network can be regarded as a network of responsibilities in which every stakeholder involved has to jointly meet the ethical challenges posed to research. (C) 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel

This introduction summarizes and discusses the main findings of the supplement ‘Health in crises. Migration, austerity and inequalities in Greece and Europe’ to the European Journal of Public Health. The supplement applies data from the ESS (2014) health module in combination with the MIGHEAL study, which is a new source of data on the Greek population specially designed to examine health inequalities among and between migrants and natives. This has enabled the authors of the nine articles that constitute this supplement to address several pressing issues about the distribution of health and its determinants in Greece and other European countries. The main finding of the present supplement is the exceptionally high rates of reported depressive symptoms across the whole population residing in Greece and particularly among women. Levels of unmet need for healthcare were also found to be alarmingly high in Greece compared with other European countries, suggesting that the crisis and subsequent austerity policies may have impacted the provision of healthcare services and access to healthcare for broad sections of the population, whether native or migrant. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

In this short paper we aim to explain how the loss of Britain’s industrial base sets the context for present-day public finances. In doing so, we draw in particular on our own research at CRESR over the last three decades. Individual components of this research provide pieces of the jigsaw, but by combining all the pieces and drawing on wider ideas in economics to fill in some of the gaps the overall picture becomes clear. In brief, our argument is that the destruction of industrial jobs, which was so marked in the 1980s and early 90s but has continued on and off ever since, fuelled spending on welfare benefits which in turn has compounded the budgetary problems of successive governments. And with the present government set on welfare reform, the places that bore the brunt of job destruction some years ago are now generally facing the biggest reductions in household incomes. There is a continuous thread linking what happened to British industry in the 1980s, via the Treasury’s budgetary calculations, to what is today happening on the ground in so many hard-pressed communities. In particular, we demonstrate these links by deploying local data. This has been the distinctive contribution of our research (and of CRESR more generally) and its value is that it provides not just a level of detail that would otherwise be missing but, more importantly, it sheds light on the underlying processes at work. The Treasury knows it has a problem balancing public finances, and that the government spends an awful lot on working-age welfare benefits. But it never seems to ask exactly where – which towns and cities – draw so heavily on benefits, or why these communities have become so dependent on welfare spending.

Austerity measures—reducing social spending and increasing taxation—hurts deprived groups the most. Less is known about the impact on health. In this short review, we evaluate the evidence of austerity’s impact on health, through two main mechanisms: a ‘social risk effect’ of increasing unemployment, poverty, homelessness and other socio-economic risk factors (indirect), and a ‘healthcare effect’ through cuts to healthcare services, as well as reductions in health coverage and restricting access to care (direct). We distinguish those impacts of economic crises from those of austerity as a response to it. Where possible, data from across Europe will be drawn upon, as well as more extensive analysis of the UK’s austerity measures performed by the authors of this review.

The recent turmoil within the banking sector has led to the development of the most significant recession since the "great depression" of the 1930s. Although the coalition government has promised to "guarantee that health spending increases in real terms in each year of Parliament", this may still not be enough to meet future needs over the coming years due to increasing demand and cost pressures. The expected mismatch between actual National Health Service (NHS) funding post-2011 and that required to satisfy increasing demand has been estimated by the Department of Health to require efficiency savings representing up to one-fifth of the overall NHS budget. This paper explains the reasons behind the anticipated slowdown in the growth of real NHS funding, and how, as a discipline, radiology can increase the efficiency of the services it provides in anticipation of future financial austerity within the NHS.

The health, social and economic impact of chronic diseases is well documented in Europe. However, chronic diseases threaten relatively more the ‘memorandum and peripheral’ Eurozone countries (i.e., Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland), which were under heavy recession after the economic crisis in 2009. Especially in Greece, where the crisis was the most severe across Europe, the austerity measures affected mainly people with chronic diseases. As a result, the urgency to tackle the threat of chronic diseases in Greece by promoting public health and providing effective chronic care while flattening the rising health care expenditure is eminent. In many European countries, integrated care is seen as a means to achieve this.The aim of this paper was to support Greek health policy makers to develop an action plan from 2015 onwards, to integrate care by bridging local policy context and needs with knowledge and experience from other European countries. To achieve this aim, we adopted a conceptual framework developed by the World Health Organization on one hand to analyse the status of integrated care in Greece, and on the other to develop an action plan for reform. The action plan was based on an analysis of the Greek health care system regarding prerequisite conditions to integrate care, a clear understanding of its context and successful examples of integrated care from other European countries. This study showed that chronic diseases are poorly addressed in Greece and integrated care is in embryonic stage.Greek policy makers have to realise that this is the opportunity to make substantial reforms in chronic care. Failing to reform towards integrated care would lead to the significant risk of collapse of the Greek health care system with all associated negative consequences. The action plan provided in this paper could support policy makers to make the first serious step to face this challenge. The details and specifications of the action plan can only be decided by Greek policy makers in close cooperation with other health and social care partners. This is the appropriate time for doing so.

This paper offers a formal analysis of the relationship between changes in government primary balance and debt-to-GDP ratio. it establishes the conditions under which a fiscal consolidation increases - instead of decreasing - the stock of government liabilities relative to aggregate output. A crucial role is played by the relationship between the elasticities of average cost of debt and nominal output to primary balance: while the former depends on debt maturity and risk premia dynamics, the latter relates to the well-known controversy on the size of government spending multipliers. The paper shows an application to the ongoing fiscal consolidation process in the Eurozone.

Based on comparative empirical evidence for 22 major OECD countries, I argue that country differences in cumulative mortality impacts of SARS-CoV-2 are largely caused by: (1) weaknesses in public health competence by country; (2) pre-existing country-wise variations in structural socio-economic and public health vulnerabilities; and (3) the presence of fiscal constraints. The paper argues that these pre-existing conditions, all favorable to the coronavirus, have been created, and amplified, by four decades of neoliberal macroeconomic policies – in particular by (a) the deadly emphasis on fiscal austerity (which diminished public health capacities, damaged public health and deepened inequalities and vulnerabilities); (b) the obsessive belief of macroeconomists in a trade-off between ‘efficiency’ and ‘equity’, which is mostly used to erroneously justify rampant inequality; (c) the complicit endorsement by mainstream macro of the unchecked power over monetary and fiscal policy-making of global finance and the rentier class; and (d) the unhealthy aversion of mainstream macro (and MMT) to raising taxes, which deceives the public about the necessity to raise taxes to counter the excessive liquidity preference of the rentiers and to realign the interests of finance and of the real economy. The paper concludes by outlining a few lessons for a saner macroeconomics.

Background The global financial crisis of 2008 is likely to have repercussions on public health in Europe, not least through escalating mass unemployment, fiscal austerity measures and inadequate social protection systems. The purpose of this study is to analyse the role of unemployment insurance for deteriorating self-rated health in the working age population at the onset of the fiscal crisis in Europe. Methods Multilevel logistic conditional change models linking institutional-level data on coverage and income replacement in unemployment insurance to individual-level panel data on self-rated health in 23 European countries at two repeated occasions, 2006 and 2009. Results Unemployment insurance significantly reduces transitions into self-rated ill-health and, particularly, programme coverage is important in this respect. Unemployment insurance is also of relevance for the socioeconomic gradients of health at individual level, where programme coverage significantly reduces health risks attached to educational attainment. Conclusions Unemployment insurance mitigated adverse health effects both at individual and country-level during the financial crisis. Due to the centrality of programme coverage, reforms to unemployment insurance should focus on extending the number of insured people in the labour force.

This paper studies the effect of austerity on forms of political participation—including voting, appealing for reform, and peaceful protesting—and the role of preferences for redistribution in shaping the relationship between individual exposure to austerity and political participation. The paper focuses on the case of the United Kingdom (UK) where, between 2011 and 2019, wide-ranging austerity policies were introduced to deal with high public debt in the aftermath of the 2007–08 financial crisis. Cuts to government spending on public investment, services, and social protection, especially during the initial fiscal consolidation phase of 2011–15, led to significant welfare losses for the population. We provide evidence from observational microeconomic data and a large-scale online experiment in the UK showing that individual exposure to welfare losses from austerity increases political participation and strengthens preferences for government redistribution. The experimental data suggests that changes in individual preferences for redistribution significantly shape the effect of austerity on political participation.

This paper studies the effect of austerity on forms of political participation—including voting, appealing for reform, and peaceful protesting—and the role of preferences for redistribution in shaping the relationship between individual exposure to austerity and political participation. The paper focuses on the case of the United Kingdom (UK) where, between 2011 and 2019, wide-ranging austerity policies were introduced to deal with high public debt in the aftermath of the 2007–08 financial crisis. Cuts to government spending on public investment, services, and social protection, especially during the initial fiscal consolidation phase of 2011–15, led to significant welfare losses for the population. We provide evidence from observational microeconomic data and a large-scale online experiment in the UK showing that individual exposure to welfare losses from austerity increases political participation and strengthens preferences for government redistribution. The experimental data suggests that changes in individual preferences for redistribution significantly shape the effect of austerity on political participation.

This paper studies the effect of austerity on forms of political participation—including voting, appealing for reform, and peaceful protesting—and the role of preferences for redistribution in shaping the relationship between individual exposure to austerity and political participation. The paper focuses on the case of the United Kingdom (UK) where, between 2011 and 2019, wide-ranging austerity policies were introduced to deal with high public debt in the aftermath of the 2007–08 financial crisis. Cuts to government spending on public investment, services, and social protection, especially during the initial fiscal consolidation phase of 2011–15, led to significant welfare losses for the population. We provide evidence from observational microeconomic data and a large-scale online experiment in the UK showing that individual exposure to welfare losses from austerity increases political participation and strengthens preferences for government redistribution. The experimental data suggests that changes in individual preferences for redistribution significantly shape the effect of austerity on political participation.

Questions about the decline of Social democracy continue to excite wide interest, even in the era of Covid-19. This paper takes a fresh look at topic. It argues that social democratic politics faces a fundamental dilemma: short-term practical relevance requires it to accept, at least partly, the very socio-economic conditions which it purports to change in the longer run. Bhaduri’s (1993) essay which analyzes social democracy’s attempts to navigate this dilemma by means of ‘a nationalization of consumption’ and Keynesian demand management, was written before the rise of New (‘Third Way’) Labor and before the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-8. This paper provides an update, arguing that New Labor’s attempt to rescue ‘welfare capitalism’ entailed a new solution to the dilemma facing social democracy based on an expansion of employment, i.e. an all-out emphasis on “jobs, jobs, jobs”. The flip-side (or social cost) of the emphasis on job growth has been a stagnation of productivity growth—which, in turn, has put the ‘welfare state’ under increasing pressure of fiscal austerity. The popular discontent and rise of ‘populist’ political parties is closely related to the failure of New Labor to navigate social democracy’s dilemma.

This paper analyzes the role of local spending, particularly on social welfare, and local inequality as factors in the Italian political crisis following the adoption in 2011 of more radical national austerity measures. We employ two different methods. First, we develop an original database of municipal budgets. There we show that even the lowest level of social welfare spending, that offered by Italian municipalities, though also hit by austerity, was still able to moderate this national shock. We test three operationalizations of local spending: aggregate current expenditures, aggregate current expenditures on social services, and current expenditures disaggregated by function. We show that municipal current expenditures, particularly on social spending, significantly affected the post-2011 share of votes for the progressive coalition. The results also show that social spending, especially on education, significantly moderated the combined effect of national austerity and the economic crisis on voting for populist radical right parties, while no significant results appeared for populist parties in general. Local inequality appears to significantly enhance vote shares of populist radical right parties and populist parties in general. We caution that, although significant, the effect is not strong: that local policy and economic conditions can moderate national shocks but cannot reverse them. The second analysis relies on survey data to ascertain the individual-level mechanisms behind the role of local welfare. The paper argues that local economic inputs influence voters’ position on non-economic issues. Our results, however, do not identify any significant individual-level channel of transmission, be it cultural or economic.

The 2008 Global Financial Crisis and subsequent austerity drive across Europe and North America has been particularly felt at a local government level. Wales presents a valuable case study through which to explore the impact of austerity on local government: it is a small country with a devolved government that is philosophically opposed to austerity, yet where cuts to local government have been drastic. Drawing on interviews with Welsh councils and key stakeholders, this paper explores three approaches councils have taken to managing austerity – efficiency, investment, and retrenchment – and finds that councils were already at a financial ‘tipping point’ before the pandemic. This paper concludes by considering the lessons that could be applied to the new challenge of recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Independent and free media are considered to be an essential component of any democratic society. Especially in countries that have been hit hard by the economic crisis and austerity measures, such as Greece, the need for independent journalism to act as watchdog, on behalf of civil society is more important than ever. However, the clientelistic relationships upon which the whole Greek media landscape is built, leaves little room for a journalism that investigates, exposes and holds those in power accountable. It is within this context, we argue, that alternative web radio stations are emerging, taking advantage of the internet technology in order to create bottom-up journalistic initiatives that challenge the current narratives and seek to constitute a new paradigm of journalism. This paper sets out to examine the general characteristics of the Greek media ecosystem but also goes on to examine the particular conditions that led to the current media crisis. It also discusses the legislative framework surrounding Greek media. Finally, this paper aims to provide a brief overview of the alternative web radios that have emerged in the current media ecosystem, by presenting in three Greek alternative web radio stations, describing their basic characteristics, principles, structures and their views on journalistic practices. Palabras clave: media transparency, radio, television, web radio.

Culture can be a powerful driver for development, with broad social, economic and environmental impacts. UNESCO acknowledged the role of culture as an enabler and a driver of sustainable development. There are undisputable effects of culture on community building, social cohesion and empowering people. The economic importance of the cultural sector is growing. Creative and cultural industries can be a source of structural economic development, job creation and innovation. The sector of culture is among the hardest hit by the corona crisis in the whole of Europe. In Slovakia, the sector suffered by austerity measures also before the pandemic. The paper is focused on the impacts of a COVID 19 pandemic on the cultural and creative sector in Slovakia. The paper's objective is to critically analyse the supportive measures for the sector at the national and local level. The theoretical framework is based on the cultural policy and its evolution in Slovakia, which created the baseline for the analysis. The paper summarises local and national bodies' compensations for cultural workers and organisations based on text analysis of available documents. There is also presented a case study of a local cultural centre in Kosice. The data for the case study stems from the semi-structured interviews with the managers of the centre about the impacts of a pandemic on their business. The results show that the policies to support firms and workers during the pandemic can be scarcely adapted to the non-traditional business models and employment forms in the cultural sector.

This paper develops the argument that post-COVID-19 recovery strategies need to focus on building back fairer cities and communities, and that this requires a strong embedding of ‘ age-friendly’ principles to support marginalised groups of older people, especially those living in deprived urban neighbourhoods, trapped in poor quality housing. It shows that older people living in such areas are likely to experience a ‘double lockdown’ as a result of restrictions imposed by social distancing combined with the intensification of social and spatial inequalities. This argument is presented as follows: first, the paper examines the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on older people, highlighting how the pandemic is both creating new and reinforcing existing inequalities in ageing along the lines of gender, class, ethnicity, race, ability and sexuality. Second, the paper explores the role of spatial inequalities in the context of COVID-19, highlighting how the pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on deprived urban areas already affected by cuts to public services, the loss of social infrastructure and pressures on the voluntary sector. Finally, the paper examines how interrelated social inequalities at both the individual and spatial level are affecting the lives of older people living in deprived urban neighbourhoods during the pandemic. The paper concludes by developing six principles for ‘age-friendly’ community recovery planning aimed at maintaining and improving the quality of life and wellbeing of older residents in the post-pandemic city.

This paper explores what anticipated futures of disadvantaged urban youth can reveal about the contemporary and future consequences of austerity. As austerity has disrupted several transitions associated with adulthood, such as finding work and moving out of the parental home, it affects how young adults imagine their future. Young adults living in neighbourhoods of concentrated deprivation were particularly vulnerable to such disruptions. Therefore, this paper builds on semi-structured interviews with youth from Knocknaheeny (Cork) and Ballymun (Dublin) in Ireland to present two vignettes reflecting dominant narratives on anticipated futures. First, a narrative that embraces neoliberal logic, where young adulthood is the basis for future success through dedicated hard work rather than a phase of exploration of possible futures. Second, a narrative of “acceptance” where youth imagines the future to “go on” from the present and becomes a source of anxiety or resignation. This paper shows that combining vignettes with interview data presents two benefits. First, they illuminate the complex and sometimes contradictory stories of youth making sense of their present, past and future. Second, comparing and contrasting the vignettes to multiple participant stories can disentangle roles of location, class, gender and other differentiations. In conclusion, the paper stresses the importance of imagined futures for understanding everyday geographies of austerity as anticipated futures surface in everyday practices, behaviour, and attitudes.

PurposeThis paper examines the contested value of healthy life and wellbeing in a context of severe austerity, exploring how the value of “Public Health” is constructed through and with material-discursive practices and accounting representations. It seeks to explore the political and ethical implications of constructing the valuable through a shared consensus over the “facts” when addressing complex, multi-agency problems with long time horizons and outcomes that are not always easily quantifiable.Design/methodology/approachThe theorisation, drawing on science and technology studies (STS) scholars and Karen Barad's (2007) agential realism, opens up the analysis to the performativity of both material and discursive practices in the period following a major re-organisation of activity. The study investigates two case authorities in England and the national regulator through interviews, observations and documentary analysis.FindingsThe paper demonstrates the deeply ethical and political entanglements of accounting representations as objectivity, consensus and collective action are constructed and resisted in practice. It goes on to demonstrate the practical challenges of constructing “alternative accounts” and “intelligent accountabilities” through times of austerity towards a shared sense of public value and suggests austerity measures make such aims both more challenging and all the more essential.Originality/valueFew studies in the accounting literature have explored the full complexity of valuation practices in non-market settings, particularly in a public sector context; this paper, therefore, extends familiar conceptual vocabulary of STS inspired research to further explore how value(s), ethics and identity all play a crucial role in making things valuable.

The Munro Review of Child Protection asserted that the English child protection system had become overly ‘defensive’, ‘bureaucratised’ and ‘standardised’, meaning that social workers were not employing their discretion in the interests of the individual child. This paper reports on the results of an ethnographic case study of one of England’s statutory child protection teams. The research sought to explore the extent of social worker discretion relative to Munro’s call for ‘radical reform’ and a move towards a more ‘child-centred’ system. Employing an iterative mixed methods design – encompassing documentary analysis, observation, focus group, questionnaire, interview and ‘Critical Realist Grounded Theory’ – the study positioned the UK Government’s prolonged policy of ‘austerity’ as a barrier to social worker discretion. This was because the policy was seen to be contributing to an increased demand for child protection services; and a related sense amongst practitioners that they were afforded insufficient time with the child to garner the requisite knowledge, necessary for discretionary behaviour. Ultimately, despite evidence of progress relative to assertions that social worker discretion had been eroded, the paper concludes that there may still be ‘more to do’ if we are to achieve the ‘child-centred’ and ‘effective’ system that Munro advocated.

Starting in 2015, the government of Ghana implemented austerity as a response to economic challenges in the country. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to demonstrate how a political climate of austerity undermines the goal of linking local agricultural production to school feeding markets. The paper draws on one-on-one semi-structured in-depth interviews with 25 service providers and one expert from the international NGO SEND-Ghana to examine the implication of austerity for Ghana’s home-grown school feeding programme. The findings reveal that austerity has meant that the actions and decisions of the service providers undermine the critical goal of linking the school feeding market to local agricultural production. Specifically, due to significant delays in reimbursing service providers for services delivered, the service providers are forced to deliver the programme by relying on credit purchases from the open market, rather than purchasing 80% of their foodstuff from the local smallholder farmers as required of them. Thus, Ghana might miss out on the development policy potential of stimulating local agricultural production through its connection to school feeding markets.

This paper analyses the scopic regime established by images of UK food banks. Analysis of three popular images of "Food Bank Britain" reveal the persistence of historical practices for visualising hunger—namely, the dominance of faciality, infantilization of the hungry, and erasure of geographical context from visual frames. Drawing on the work of Judith Butler, this paper demonstrates how such images serve to 'frame' austerity—where framing describes the link between the bounding of the literal edges of an image and the epistemic, affective frames for understanding and feeling austerity that are mobilised. Rather than attempting to portray "real" images of food banks, this scopic regime is instead marked by the production of ocular affects that structure the feelings of the viewer towards certain political ends. It is concluded that this framing of hunger denies the political life of food bank users, a process that in turn effaces the radical questions necessary to address the causes of hunger at a time of austerity.

The paper contributes to the recent growth models debate through a cross-country analysis of growth drivers before and after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC). It argues that the widely used dichotomy of export-led versus (debt-financed) consumption-led growth has lost its usefulness since the GFC. Specifically, identifying growth models through growth contributions can give misleading results when the drivers of economic growth change. The paper contends that Comparative Political Economy (CPE) has neglected the unstable nature of financial growth drivers, effectively ignores fiscal policy, and overemphasizes price competitiveness as a growth driver. It shows empirically that, first, debt-financed growth is cyclical and financial booms come with busts and debt overhang; second, post-GFC growth dynamics are strongly shaped by the fiscal policy reaction; third, price competitiveness through wage deflation has played a negligible role in driving growth. We conclude that CPE needs to broaden its analysis of growth drivers in order to understand how the GFC transformed growth models.

In crisis conditions, solidarity structures emerge as a social and political response to the crisis. This study introduces a new conceptualisation of solidarity structures as grassroots contestations to the neoliberal ‘there-is-no-alternative’ (TINA) discourse. It argues that their operation reflects counterhegemonic practices that can keep alive the hope that another world, based on principles of solidarity, is possible. Moreover, this paper, utilising Gramsci’s work, argues that welfare grassroots community solidarity structures (WGCSS) challenge hegemonic assumptions surrounding the TINA discourse, such as responsibilisation and individual failings, by reflecting arguments for collective provisioning, empowerment and community action, and systemic failings. The arguments made in this paper draw on rapid ethnographic activist research in Chania, Crete, Greece.

The move Picasso made in 1912 away from the austerity of hermetic Cubism and towards a more explicit acknowledgment of life outside the studio has been carefully charted in histories of Cubism. Most recently Pierre Daix noted his change of companion, Eva for Fernande, and of locality, the cafe terraces of Montparnasse for the village bohemia of Montmartre, as contributory factors in the development of an art of everyday life whose iconography was that of the cafe table. Shortly after moving to his new studio on the Boulevard Raspail in October, Picasso began to explore the pictorial possibilities of papiers colles in a series of small charcoal drawings on paper that addressed subjects of everyday city life with a new freshness, making deft and lighthearted use of newspapers, food and drink labels, and sheet music.

Innovation is a fashionable concept, as many economic (and elec-tion),1 international 2 and state 3 programmes show. Fashion might not be the essential part of the scientific discourse, however, even judging by the politicians’ declarations, innovation is certainly a popular topic and a point of interest for many scholars. One would even dare to claim that innovation policy attracts more positive attention than defence policy. In the times of economic crisis and austerity that are both affecting the Eurozone, it seems that authorizing expenses on innovation is easier than defending even limited military budgets. The economists themselves are also more inclined to claim it is innovation not war that stimulates the economy.4 Since the states are usually considered as the most active in that field, the term innovation policy was quickly coined. It encompasses all state actions directed at innovation. Some of these actions form so-called innovation indices (also known as innovation indicators), whose main aim is to measure innovation performance of the country. Other entities, private companies or individuals being the example, often engage in innovation process as well and are, to some extent, included in innovation measures. By large though these indices show the role of the state. Since they attempt to measure innovative performance, when we ask about their effectiveness, we ask about the effectiveness of innovation policies, and ultimately, the impact innovation (and innovation policies) has on economy. We will argue that the effectiveness of these innovation indicators in achieving the goal that is set before them can be questioned. Nonetheless they are still taken into account when innovation policies are shaped. In order to prove our thesis we decided to divide the paper into smaller sections. First, we will describe innovation as a theoretical concept and show its place in economic models. Then we will try answer the question why innovation is measured. Since the main goal of this paper is critique of current innovation measures, we will present two traditional (and most popular at the same time) innovation indicators and most important arguments against them. We will also include indices that are considered alternative to the traditional measures. The most important and conclusive part of this paper will be devoted to the critique of both old and new indices, and any innovation indicators in general.

Whilst post-GFC austerity state retrenchment is widely studied, there is little research which focuses on the experiences of those who work at the front-line of austere public services. Drawing on qualitative evidence with front-line workers in four UK local authorities significantly impacted by austerity, this paper explores ‘coping mechanisms’ developed by workers to manage resource restriction. It argues that existing conceptualisations of coping mechanisms, such as either resistance or adaptation, are insufficient to understand how workers manage contemporary austerity. This paper proposes an additional mechanism – absorption – and explores analytically how workers cope with austerity in terms of resistance, adaptation and absorption. The paper concludes that front-line local government workers are coping with austerity cuts, in large part, by acting as ‘shock absorbers’ of state retrenchment.

In recent years, austerity measures in the UK have placed increasing emphasis on third sector organisations to address gaps in Central Government provision. Reflecting upon community sport services during this period, this paper presents the findings of a qualitative study of the everyday working practices of a group of community sport development workers (CSDWs) in the South of England, outlining how they adopted innovative and entrepreneurial practices as a response to fiscal constraint. We argue that, amidst an intensification of neoliberalism and new public management, the UK community sport development sector has become increasingly fragmented which, in turn, has presented a series of challenges that militate against the (re)establishment of community-based ideals. The paper concludes that there is potential to apply these findings globally to nations where austerity policies have been the primary response to the financial crisis and/or where a similar approach to community sport development exists.

Financial austerity has brought considerable pressure upon policing services in England and Wales in the past decade. For the British government, one mitigatory vehicle to alleviate this pressure is the expansion of police collaborative units operating across two or more police forces. To date however, such cross-force collaborations have been beset by a series of problems and progress has been inexorably slow. Drawing upon the reflections of police officers and staff involved at varying stages of cross-force collaborations, this paper explores why collaborations have so far largely failed. The paper argues that while the challenges of cross-force collaborations echo those of previous police efforts to work with external partners, these difficulties are intensified during cross-force collaborations in which partners present divergent policing agendas. As such, cross-force collaborations may be usefully understood as ‘complex problems,’ marking them out as particularly challenging and demanding new and distinct approaches to problem-solving.

This paper will consider the enduring acts of care, support and activism associated with unemployment in the North East and Midlands regions of England. It will draw upon literature relating to unemployment, labour geography and feminist economic geography to illuminate different forms of agency and resourcefulness found within the examples considered. The paper engages with Unemployed Workers’ Centres in Newcastle upon Tyne and Chesterfield, focusing mostly upon their activities in response to UK austerity policies. These centres provide advice and support for unemployed people, particularly those who may be facing difficulties, such as work capability assessments, tribunals and debt. This supporting role is complimented by the campaigning activities of volunteers within these groups that actively contest related issues, including campaigns relating to zero-hour contracts, organising against austerity policies and wider educational projects as part of a relationship with Unite Community. The paper suggests that the associated organising practices indicate a varied and sustained form of unemployed political agency that articulates and contests multiple unemployed grievances. This engagement with a wider political realm, alongside the intimate acts of support and care found within the centres, suggests a more nuanced and agentic understanding of unemployed resistance within an austerity context.

This paper investigates the long-term impact of economic shocks on populism, by exploiting a natural experiment created by the trade liberalization process implemented in Brazil between 1990 and 1995. This high impact and low duration event generated a profound shock to the economy with, we argue, long term implications for political outcomes. We focus on the 2002 and 2018 presidential elections in Brazil, which resulted in the election of a left-wing and a right-wing populist president, respectively. The results show that trade reforms explain the rise of populism in Brazil during the last two decades. Microregions with larger tariff cuts in the early 1990s had significantly higher preferences for Lula in 2002 and were also more likely to support Bolsonaro in 2018. The link between trade liberalization and populism is mediated by austerity in both cases. The shift between left-wing and right-wing preferences is driven by the supply side of populism, whereby each leader took advantage of existing cleavages in the country at the time of their election-driven by inequality in the case of Lula and by insecurity and corruption in the case of Bolsonaro-to develop narratives against austerity that would appeal to their target audiences.

In global corporations, outsourcing side business services has become increasingly popular within the last 20 years. In financial management, there are many laws that global companies must follow, generating high finance and accountancy costs. Strategic management is crucial to stay competitive in the global market.A new business model that combines austerity measures with high-quality finance and accounting services is becoming popular worldwide thanks to changes in company structures. This paper aims to indicate how a certain business model impacts financial management globally and how the business structure changes as the company grows. This paper analyses trend in global business, establishing a separate legal organisation for finance and accounting purposes only, to provide these types of services for business units all over the world within a capital group. W świecie globalnych korporacji outsourcing części usług biznesowych zyskał na popularności na przestrzeni ostatnich 20 lat. W obszarze zarządzania finansami dominują ograniczenia legislacyjne, za którymi korporacje globalne bezwzględnie muszą podążać, co generuje wysokie koszty obsługi finansowo-księgowej.Wydaje się, że umiejętność zarządzania strategicznego pozwoli globalnym gigantom pozostać konkurencyjnymi pomimo rosnących regulacji, a za tym rosnących kosztów. Nowy model biznesowy jest zdeterminowany znaczącym ograniczeniem kosztów z jednej strony oraz wysoką jakością usług z zakresu finansów i księgowości z drugiej strony; co jest możliwe dzięki określonym zmianom w strukturze organizacji o globalnym zasięgu. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest wskazanie jak określony, przyjęty przez organizację model biznesowy determinuje zarządzanie korporacyjnymi finansami oraz jak powyższe wpływa na zmianę struktury organizacyjnej korporacji o zasięgu globalnym. Artykuł ten jest próbą uchwycenia nowego trendu wśród korporacji międzynarodowych, polegającego na tworzeniu prawnie odrębnych, ale powiązanych kapitałowo jednostek organizacyjnych dla celów związanych z zarządzaniem finansami i rachunkowością.

This paper explores the role of moralization processes and classification struggles in public contestations over gentrification. Focusing on representations in news media, the paper examines recent...

PurposeFirst, the paper examines the short-term fiscal and budgetary responses of the South Asian governments to the COVID-19 pandemic. Next, it brings out the implications of such responses, focusing on India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on multiple secondary data sources, including the viewpoints of experts and government officials. Data are analysed using the ideas of financial resilience.FindingsSouth Asian governments' response to the pandemic shows a gap in understanding the magnitude of the problem and in developing financial resilience. This paper points out the importance of avoiding austerity, becoming more cautious in accepting lending conditions, rethinking public sector accountability and revitalising mutual collaboration through SAARC for developing financial resilience, both at individual country and regional levels.Originality/valueThe study offers some insights on policy implications for South Asian governments in terms of building financial resilience to deal with future crises.

In Britain, the number of young single people living in shared accommodation is on the rise. While sharing may be positive when voluntarily chosen, those who are forced to share accommodation may have far more negative experiences. This paper examines how recent changes to the Shared Accommodation Rate of housing welfare have resulted in people having to share accommodation until the age of thirty-five. Our focus is on the experiences of young single women who are in receipt of housing benefit and are living on low or no income. The paper is based upon forty biographical interviews with people who have lived, or are living in, shared accommodation with strangers. It emphasises how, although having a roof over their heads, women living in shared accommodation often do not feel at home. Shared living resulted in domestic space being experienced not as a site of refuge, but as a place of insecurity and fear. The paper highlights how cuts to housing welfare have removed a vital infrastructure of care, leaving some young women in a position of heightened vulnerability. We hence propose that vulnerability should be conceptualised as a structural condition rather than an inherent gendered disposition.

The impact of austerity on urban governance has become a key area of academic concern, but many studies tend to interpret the effect on individual urban state bodies through analysis of broader governance relations, whilst also framing austerity as an overarching and homogeneous set of ideas, values and practices. In response, this paper examines a city government’s economic development department as a means in which to understand how the heterogeneous agency of the organisation mitigates austerity. In examining the adaptation to austerity, the paper deploys the practice theory of Schatzki. This involves utilising his conceptualisation of the construction of practices through various elements in producing the organisation, and their related ‘timespaces’. In conclusion, examining practices are important in understanding the intricacies of the ‘agency’ of the organisation, with the paper elucidating the uneven reconfiguration of the case study towards forms of timespace governing based on entrepreneurial pro-growth practices.

Im Dezember 2009 gab die Bayerische Staatsregierung das Ziel einer grundlegenden Neugestaltung der Landesentwicklung im Freistaat nach den Prinzipien der Liberalisierung, Deregulierung und Kommunalisierung aus. Diese Entscheidung fällt zusammen mit dem Aufkommen der globalen Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise und der daran anschließenden Eurokrise, in deren Zuge sparpolitische Ziele an Bedeutung gewannen. Ausgehend von der Beschreibung eines austeritätspolitischen Föderalismus durch den Geographen Jamie Peck analysiert dieser Beitrag die raumordnungspolitischen Reformen in Bayern zwischen 2008 und 2018. Hierzu stützt er sich auf die Merkmale der Kommunalisierung, des Wettbewerbs und der Responsibilisierung von Städten und Gemeinden und prüft, ob diese Logiken auch im Freistaat nachzuvollziehen sind. Der Beitrag schließt mit einer Diskussion der Konsequenzen des austeritätspolitischen Föderalismus für die strukturschwachen Kommunen Bayerns. In December 2009, the Bavarian State Government issued a fundamental reorganisation of state development in Bavaria according to the principles of liberalisation, deregulation and municipalisation. This decision coincides with the emergence of the global financial and economic crisis and the subsequent euro crisis, in the wake of which austerity policy objectives gained importance. Based on the description of an austere federalism by geographer Jamie Peck, this paper analyses the spatial planning reforms in Bavaria between 2008 and 2018. Based on the characteristics of municipalisation, competition and responsibilisation of cities and municipalities the paper examines whether these logics can also be observed in Bavaria. The article concludes with a discussion of the consequences of austere federalism for structurally weak municipalities in Bavaria.