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The COVID-19 pandemic resulting from the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread in a very short time globally, bringing significant consequences to the health of millions of people. At the same time, the pandemic had a strong impact on the global economy by increasing government spending and declining tax revenues that led to worsening macroeconomic indicators and subsequently, the emergence of a new period of recession. In order to support the economy, public authorities have developed and implemented a series of measures and policies that will gradually lead to the improvement of the global economic context and the recovery of the economy in the shortest possible time. Moreover, at the level of the European Union, the authorities were more involved than ever by implementing a new intervention instrument entitled "Next generation EU" through which funds were allocated to European states, and at the same time, it was decided to activate the derogation clause. The Stability and Growth Pact, according to which European states can deviate from the criteria specified in the founding treaties of the European Union, refer to the level of the budget deficit, respectively of government debt as a percentage of gross domestic product. The motivation for choosing this topic is on the one hand the negative impact that this phenomenon has generalized at all socio-political and economic levels, as well as the topicality of the topic debated in contemporary scientific research.

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Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, dystopian imaginaries have been used to describe both the threat posed by the virus and the public health restrictions implemented to contain its spread. They have fuelled panic buying and conspiracy theories, and have informed public discourse and government rhetoric. Dystopian works like 1984, The Eyes of Darkness, The Matrix and Black Mirror have been lauded for their foresight, while former health secretary, Matt Hancock, has stated that watching Contagion affected his planning of the vaccine rollout. This essay reflects on the relationship between dystopian cultures and Covid-19, examining, firstly, the role that figurations of dystopia have played in the collective and political response to the pandemic. Contextualising the British government’s handling of the crisis in the political culture of neoliberalism, the essay uses the concept of dystopia to underline the continuity of this response with the politics of the decade that preceded it – in the aborted pursuit of “herd immunity”, for example; the non-transparent conferment to private-sector companies, with little or no public health expertise, of contracts worth billions; and the authoritarian use of Covid legislation. The essay argues that it is the loss of impulses and discourses that challenge the status quo that marks the truly dystopian aspect of the pandemic. It explores, finally, the cultural implications of this, questioning the value we place on culture and the work we ask of it in times of crisis, and probing the political utility therein of the notion of dystopia.

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This article examines the impact of austerity policies on gender inequality in Mexico and Brazil. More specifically, it seeks to discuss the need to reconcile public expenditure with a development strategy that actually includes a gender perspective. The feminization of poverty is of particular interest, as it is the basis upon which we try to outline the socioeconomic conditions in which Mexican and Brazilian women live with regards to progress, setbacks, and challenges. Thus, a brief explanation of the term austerity is provided with the purpose of reflecting on the limitations and opportunities that public expenditure might have in terms of gender inequality. Then, basic economic statistics concerning the dynamics of economic growth and public expenditure are included and certain key variables revolving around gender gaps in both countries are examined. Finally, we offer a diagnosis of the consequences of poverty on the female population in order to identify the leeway that public expenditure focused on gender should have for the most vulnerable population sector. The purpose is to promote development policies based on greater equality. In summary, as a result of the study, we observe that public expenditure intended at fighting against poverty (female-male) had considerable success in the case of Brazil, but not in the case of Mexico. However, in both countries, the recent deepening of austerity policies could limit the efforts of public expenditure on the feminization of poverty in particular, and on gender inequalities in general.

The anthropology of the economic crisis since 2007/ 08 analyses the emergence of solidarity practices among social movements, kinship, and friendship during austerity and the recession in Southern Europe. Analysing these practices alongside “resilience” allows to critically examine the interdependence of “variegated austerity” and the normative appraisal of solidarity networks and familial care practices. The article does so by proposing a 'social autopsy' of the configurations of care around an interlocutor who died in 2015 in a public hospital in Greece. The article reconstructs the symbolic and material aspects of gendered obligations, alternative economies, and austerity in public health in how his daughter Kalypso organised care in his last weeks. This analysis aims to contribute to foregrounding these uncanny compansionships when analysing uncertainty and resilience.

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Social citizenship has begun to break down in Europe, precisely at a time when technology has rendered the productive model more flexible and the world economy has become predominantly financialised, giving rise to differentiated career paths, structural labour surpluses (generated by the new mode of regulation and embedding of labour in the productive process), and highly fragmented life-styles. The social question (viewed from a national, distributive, labour-oriented and egalitarian standpoint), which had lain at the heart of the idea of Europe since World War II, has been losing its institutional defences as the economic framework has morphed into a multinational technological and financial network that is dispersed, volatile and delocalised. The result has been like a breakdown of the traditional labour-based society and the set of civic (and legal) conventions underpinning it, and the onset of an institutionally organised, progressive dualisation and fragmentation of labour relations; all this has meant a serial weakening of the framework of protection, security and rights enshrined in the classic European notion of labour citizenship that ultimately affects the very notion of democracy. Since the 1990s the European Union has been acting more as an agency of monetary discipline than a defender of the collective guarantees of wage-earners, and in the European context of today, social citizenship has shrunk to a new kind of liberal citizenship which remits solely to individual political freedoms.

This paper critically examines the health reform trajectory in Greece in the last decade. The first part provides an overview of the Greek healthcare system shortly before the crisis, with an emphasis on the incomplete development of a national health system beset by inequalities in coverage and funding. At the backdrop of the crippling debt-crisis that engulfed the country in the late 2000s, the second part of the study tracks the major healthcare reforms under the successive bailout packages. These are examined from the point of view of whether they can secure the public system’s long-term viability and promote equity, or if they contribute to its withering away instead. The third part of the article looks at the impact of the austerity-driven reforms on inequalities in healthcare, highlighting some major findings regarding health outcomes.

Both the impact of the crisis unleashed in 2008 and its management through austerity policies have had a clear effect on health and health services both in Spain and in Portugal. Some evidences of this impact are analyzed in this article from a dual perspective: the objective indicators related to health and health services in both countries, and the subjective indicators on quality of life related to health and health services, including the users’ satisfaction with the health services. The data shows that, although the objective indicators have improved once the crisis was overcome, that was not the case with the subjective indicators. This happens, among other reasons, because the social determinants of health are still far from overcoming the crisis.

This article discusses the main lines of the anti-crisis policy in Portugal, its consequences on the citizens’ well-being and health inequalities and the impasses in health reforms planned both to ensure the financial sustainability of the health system and to improve equity. Different studies reveal that health inequalities in Portugal have been consistently higher than those observed in other European countries in the last decade and continue to be closely associated with geography, income, and health literacy. In the absence of a well-structured reform program, the blind cuts on expenses prevailed, showing no consideration to their impact in very sensitive areas of medical care. The manner in which slowness, insufficiency or downgrading of services affects citizens differs according to their social condition and the way they deal with the situation. The article is illustrated with examples of how citizens, families, and civil society organizations have sought to circumvent the lack of response from public health services.

Equitable access to healthcare is fundamental in preventing health inequities, and it is warranted by international and regional norms on socio-economic rights. However, during financial crisis, pro-cyclical fiscal austerity can shift the cost of healthcare from the public onto the individual, impinging on the right of everyone to access timely and affordable healthcare. This article analyses this process through the case study of Italy, where the 2008 Great Recession catalysed a series of draconian budget cuts in the health sector. Using disaggregated survey data on self-reported unmet needs for healthcare, it will be shown that increased user fees and downsized health staff and facilities, combined with reduced disposable income, was associated with a drastic rise in inequities in accessing healthcare in Italy.

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Copyright of Education et Societes is the property of INRP and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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Copyright of Langage & Societe is the property of Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Conventional wisdom tends to oppose the 1970s British Labour Party and the French Socialist Party in what concerns their views on the economy. The former, intermittently in office since 1945, accepted to lead austerity policies, perceived as the only means to defeat spiralling inflation and balance of payments imbalances. On the other hand, the latter and its communist allies supported a radical economic alternative based on a substantial enlargement of public sector and a constraining planning system. A more careful reading of the programmes designed by both parties in the early 1970s allows us to significantly revise this assessment. The sections of these documents that address economic issues actually offered astonishing resemblances, all of them being based on nationalisation, a reinforcement of planning mechanisms and a plea for industrial democracy. This article aims at reflecting upon the main causes of this economic convergency. By combining a transnational approach with a careful attention to the national framework in which both parties developed their policies, the article shows that the common economic culture emerging in the programmes can only be understood by examining the case of the economic experts involved in the drafting of these documents. While rejecting explanations in terms of Sonderweg, this work suggests to consider the relationship between the British and French socialists as an interesting case study of transnationalization of economic culture in the Western European social-democracy and of its limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1980 the neoliberal agenda has become the strongest advocate against social and labour rights. However, the 2008 crisis emerged a new economic, political and juridical model based on the idea of austerity - a muscled form of neoliberalism which deepens the neoliberal ideology by other means. Bearing this in mind, I have chosen to organise this paper around three topics. In the first section, my purpose is to suggest that, in addition to the obvious economic and financial aspects of the austerity model, there is also a social model of reality that must be characterised sociologically. In the second, assuming that to a certain concept of law there is a certain concept of society, I state that to the austerity society correspond a certain type of law and politics. Finally, I identify four possible paths of developing research and action programmes for sociology of the law of austerity. Desde 1980, el programa neoliberal se ha convertido en el mayor partidario contra los derechos sociales y laborales. Sin embargo, la crisis de 2008 dio lugar a un nuevo modelo económico, político y jurídico basado en la idea de austeridad -una forma fortalecida del neoliberalismo que acentúa la ideología neoliberal por otros medios-.Teniendo esto en mente, este trabajo se ha organizado en torno a tres temas. En la primera sección, se pretende sugerir que, además de los aspectos económicos y financieros evidentes del modelo de austeridad, hay también un modelo social de realidad que hay que caracterizar sociológicamente. En la segunda, partiendo de que un determinado concepto de derecho está relacionado con una determinada concepción de sociedad, se defiende que la sociedad de la austeridad se corresponde con un determinado tipo de derecho y política. Por último, se identifican cuatro posibles vías de desarrollo de programas de investigación y acción para la sociología jurídica de la austeridad. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2831995

This special issue of the Onati Socio-legal Series analyses legal and economic inequality, and policies of austerity after the global financial crisis (GFC) at the intersections of gender and sexuality. Each of the articles included in this issue speak to one or more of these themes. Collectively, the articles place questions of gender and sexuality at the centre of an analysis of reforms motivated by ‘economic rationalisation’ and austerity measures. They highlight the political economy of policies that differentially impact women, indigenous populations and socially or economically marginalised groups. Este número especial de la Oñati Socio-legal Series analiza la desigualdad legal y económica, y las políticas de austeridad después de la crisis financiera global (CFG) en las intersecciones entre género y sexualidad. Cada uno de los artículos de este número tratan sobre uno o más de estos temas. De forma colectiva, los artículos plantean cuestiones sobre género y sexualidad en el centro de un análisis de las reformas motivadas por la “racionalización económica” y las medidas de austeridad. Destacan la política economía de las políticas que impactan de forma diferente en mujeres, población indígena y grupos marginados social o económicamente. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2736309

TThis paper discusses the impact of austerity on social services in Portugal. The highly complex process of changes to public services launched by anti-crisis programmes needs to be analysed from different perspectives. On the supply side, the impacts are associated with reducing expenditure in social areas in different ways: reducing benefits by axing services, cutting staff costs, dismissing public sector workers and centralizing procurement; privatizing public management; blind cuts to the current expenses budget. On the demand side, the impacts are associated with reductions to the disposable income of families by cutting entitlements to healthcare, education, housing, social security and other benefits, cutting public sector pay, taxing pensions, and introducing or increasing restrictions on access to public services. Este artículo analiza el impacto de la austeridad en los servicios sociales de Portugal. El proceso de cambio en las políticas públicas tan complejo que se produjo como consecuencia de los programas anti-crisis requieren un análisis desde diferentes perspectivas. En el lado de la oferta, los impactos se asocian con la reducción del gasto social de diferentes formas: reduciendo beneficios por el recorte en servicios, recortando los costes de personal, despidiendo a trabajadores del sector público y centralizando las adquisiciones; privatizando la gestión pública; recortes ocultos en el presupuesto de gastos vigente. En el lado de la demanda, los impactos se asocian con la reducción de la renta de las familias mediante la reducción de derechos sanitarios, educación, vivienda, seguridad social y otros beneficios, recortando los salarios del sector público, gravando las pensiones e introduciendo o aumentando las restricciones en el acceso a servicios públicos. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2683350

The austerity imposed following the Memorandum of Understanding has triggered a dissatisfaction that extended to broad sectors of the Portuguese society. Besides trade union action, which was going through a particularly critical period between 2010 and 2013, other collective actors emerged from civil society and mobilised against labour precariousness and austerity expansion, configuring a protest cycle. That context was breeding ground for the emergency of new action strategies, putting in evidence the existence of ambivalent relations, marked by complementarities and tensions, between the trade union field and social movements. This article focuses on the building of cooperation/articulation relations between the CGTP (the biggest Portuguese trade union confederation) and the anti-austerity movement, seeking to identify enabling factors as well obstacles to their unfoldment.

The United Kingdom is confronted with a geopolitics of austerity, following the 2008 crisis and governments’ policies. Several interdependent issues, sometimes pre-existing, are then strengthened and reconfigured: emergence of a protest vote, rise of nationalisms and regionalisms, Brexit, local rivalries or claims for decentralisation. This geopolitics of austerity reveals the fault lines of the United Kingdom, a multi-nation state, whose institutional stability and unity seems weakened. After a multiscalar analysis of the rise of protest votes since 2008, this paper examines the strategies of resistance to the austerity policy in specific territories, especially Scotland and Northern England.

The current recession provides an opportunity to explore the interrelation of economic crunches and the production of space. This article outlines an interpretive framework to probe the fundamental role of urban and territorial restructuring in the formation, management and resolution of capitalist crises and, conversely, to understand periods of crisis as key stages in the history of urbanization and the development of planning techniques. I begin with a cursory review of several historical episodes of crisis, showing the strategic role played by the transformation of the built environment in these periods. After a brief analysis of the causes of the real estate bubble and subsequent bust in Spain, I suggest that the emerging “austerity urbanism” will deepen the agenda of neoliberal planning in recent decades. The article studies the main features of the forthcoming cycle of urban creative destruction and concludes with a series of critical proposals that could contribute to developing an alternative urbanism based on the tenets of sociospatial justice and democracy.

This paper considers current cuts to social housing provision in the UK made in the name of austerity. It focuses particularly on the ‘bedroom tax’ —the cut to housing benefit for working-age social housing tenants whose property is deemed to provide more bedrooms than they need. It begins by explaining the long-standing political project of social housing in the UK. This background is important to explain the emergence of a discursively ghettoized population within social housing. We then turn to the ‘bedroom tax’ itself. We consider the two quite separate rationales underpinning its introduction. One rationale —fairness— is the focus of the politicians; the other —under-occupation— provides the focus for policy analysts. Both offer different versions of truth about the social in social housing and both are unconvincing. For us, this is significant because the politics of austerity require the support of public opinion. We then consider some strategies of resistance to the ‘bedroom tax’ which harness the disruptive potential of fairness before concluding that the bedroom tax requires relatively little unpacking to reveal it as an ideological device which operates to increase inequality whilst deploying a rhetoric of fairness. Este artículo analiza los recortes en las prestaciones de viviendas sociales que se realizan actualmente en el Reino Unido en nombre de la austeridad. Se centra particularmente en el 'impuesto dormitorio' -el recorte en el subsidio de vivienda para inquilinos en edad de trabajar, cuya vivienda se considera que tiene más dormitorios de los que necesitan. Comienza explicando el proyecto político de viviendas sociales, de larga tradición en el Reino Unido. Estos antecedentes son importantes para explicar el surgimiento de guetos en las viviendas sociales. A continuación se centra en el "impuesto dormitorio” en sí mismo. Se analizan los dos diferentes motivos que sustentan su promulgación. Una es la razón esgrimida por los políticos -legitimidad-, la otra –baja ocupación-, la esgrimen los analistas políticos. Ambos ofrecen diferentes versiones de la verdad acerca de lo social en materia de vivienda social y ambos son poco convincentes. En nuestra opinión, esto es relevante porque las políticas de austeridad requieren del apoyo de la opinión pública. Después consideramos algunas estrategias de resistencia al "impuesto dormitorio" que aprovechan el potencial disruptivo de equidad, antes de concluir que es relativamente sencillo revelarlo como un instrumento ideológico que opera para aumentar la desigualdad, a la vez que utiliza una retórica de equidad. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2565733

Fiscal policy in the Euro area is still dominated by austerity measures implemented under the institutional setting of the “reformed” stability and growth pact, and the even stricter “fiscal compact”. At the same time, calls for a more expansionary fiscal policy to overcome the economic crisis have become more frequent, recently. Therefore, the article tries to assess the remaining leeway for a truly expansionary fiscal policy within the existing institutional framework. Special emphasis is put on the method of cyclical adjustment employed by the European commission in order to assess member states’ fiscal position and effort. It turns out that even in the existing framework the leeway for a macroeconomically and socially more sensible fiscal policy using the interpretational leeway inherent in the rules is quite substantial.

To handle the sovereign debt crisis in general and macroeconomic imbalances in particular the leading EU institutions and the Troika (European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund) adopted two broad approaches: The short-term approach is based on enhancing the Stability and Growth Pact and to impose fiscal austerity on crisis countries. The medium- to long-term strategy consists of internal devaluation via reducing wage costs. Both approaches were combined with structural adjustment programs in the spirit of the Washington Consensus. The Troika’s policy implies an asymmetric adjustment process burdening only crisis countries. It led to the shrinking of demand and output in crisis countries comparable to the Great Depression and brought the European Monetary Union to the edge of deflation. These polices must be judged as mislead increasing the risk of Japanese disease with more than one lost decade.

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EMPLOYMENT IN QUEBEC AND CANADA has evolved to be characterized by multiple employment statuses, precarity, and the resurgence of the phenomenon of the working poor. After quickly reviewing transformations occurring in the late 1970s that were marked by a shift towards neoliberal policies, we examine the recent changes of social policy related to labour in the era of austerity. With regard to the federal government, we examine the employment insurance program and the temporary migrant worker programs. With regard to the Quebec government, we focus mainly on social assistance policies, as well as on child care services. We treat these programs as employment policies and highlight the role played by the state in deepening the neoliberal shift that began almost forty years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of 2010 we have witnessed a new wave of international protest that reveal a crisis of legitimacy of political agents, the widespread dissatisfaction with the responses to economic crisis and a challenge to the processes of labour precarisation. In Portugal, this cycle of collective action had its foundational event in the “Geração à Rasca” demonstration and its most recent expression in the protests called by the “Que se Lixe a Troika”. In this article, we try to explain the background of these mobilizations, to identify their main features and present a number of hypotheses to interpret its sociological meaning

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This paper provides a critical assessment of the austerity measures that are being implemented in the crisis-stricken countries of the Eurozone, and in particular, the implications of internal devaluation for the Greek economy. The theoretical underpinnings and phases of internal devaluation are explored. A detailed statistical analysis of key macroeconomic indicators pertaining to the Greek economy is carried out. Alternatives to internal devaluation are proposed in this paper, laying the foundations for a reassessment of the policy of austerity and the implications for recovery and sustainability of economic activity in Greece and other countries of the Eurozone.

Since the outbreak of the financial crisis, constitutional demands - full independence or further devolution- have been increasingly regarded as means to avoid the British Governments' austerity policies. The SNP has taken full electoral advantage of this overlap. Yet the Scottish Government will now have to meet expectations.

The policies and actions of the Cameron-Clegg government, and its successor single party Conservative government led by David Cameron since its victory at the 7 May 2015 General Election, should not be seen in isolation. Since May 1979, successive United Kingdom governments have claimed to be restoring an entrepreneur-led enterprise culture, based upon a ‘developmental market’ political rhetoric and agenda. However, this article argues that successive United Kingdom governments from Thatcher to Cameron have in fact reflected a developmental state tradition which can be traced back to England’s financial revolution during the seventeenth century. Where late industrializing economies have pursued a developmental state strategy based upon the nurturing of competitive advantage in civilian manufacturing industries, England (and latterly the United Kingdom) has pursued a developmental state strategy founded upon competitive advantage in financial markets and military industries. It is this developmental state tradition which can account for the British state’s provision of a £1.162 trillion bailout of United Kingdom banks, and the fiscal austerity implemented since May 2010. Rather than having been shaped by a developmental market, as the basis for a Hayekian constitution of liberty, the United Kingdom’s government’s response to the 2007-2008 financial crisis has witnessed not a rolling back but a wholesale redefinition of the role of the British state through the passage of laws and legislation designed to defend the interests and deal with the consequences of the exercise of arbitrary market power. In this sense, in the words of Philip Mirowski, the United Kingdom government has not let the 2008 crisis go to waste.

The aim of this article is to explain the degree of continuity and change in work-family reconciliation policy under the UK Coalition government (2010 to 2015). The article first traces the development of work-family policy in the UK and its accompanying policy discourses from the 1980s onwards before moving on to assess the degree of continuity and change in this policy area since 2010. The article then reviews the policy drivers underlying this policy continuity and change so identified. It concludes that in general, work-family reconciliation policy has been resistant to the degree of austerity cuts suffered in other areas. This resistance is explained by the material conditions which demand investment in work-family reconciliation (continuing high maternal employment, the demands of the new social risks and the need for social investment in early education) coupled with a political environment which supports the policy (from the business community and the electorate, influencing in particular Conservative party policy). The areas which have seen retrenchment – namely, the direct provision of childcare services by government and benefits for poorer families – are those which do not fit with the new more residual welfare-state model constructed by the Coalition.

While Detroit is often viewed simply as a city full of alternative and innovative practices, this paper seeks to counterbalance the pervasive aesthetics of a degrowth city that stick to Detroit. Analyzing the urban revitalization that started at the turn of the 2000s, we argue that these initiatives match the “austerity urbanism” trends that typify Northern American cities. In their search for bringing back the local housing market, public actors find themselves increasingly dependent on the private sector and its own logics. Three main urban renewal features are examined here, features that exemplify the marginalization of local officials: the externalization of housing production to foundations and community organizations, the privatization of the downtown area by two local billionaires, and the implementation of a blight removal strategy at the city scale. We conclude by reviewing some recent alternative practices implemented in low-income neighborhoods that mitigate a market-only perspective.

The essay aims at highlighting some fundamental paradoxes affecting the very structure of the European Union in its current organization. The currency union is not only insufficient, but ultimately impairing the economic efficiency of the Eurozone. The economic issues that the European Union project was designed to respond to do not correspond to the present circumstances. The European institutions and the European left-wing parties have lost sight of the proper parameters of social justice. Left-wing parties endorsing pro-capital policies and supranationalism deployed to overcome nationalism are the two main paradoxes that have a damaging impact on the present development of European institutions.

In spite of the oldest texts about Sparta, this city, owing to Plutarch’s Lives, inspired many utopians, especially in times of great ideological and political ferments. In connection with three main themes – social peace, minds’ moulding and patriotism – are selected here the times of the Enlightenment, of the French Revolution and of the Third Reich; during these periods, the Spartan model was unceasingly called forth. Sparta still suffers from having been a model for totalitarian regimes.

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An interview is presented with Mario Soares, a Portuguese author and the former Primer Minister and President of Portugal. Soares talks about his special connection to France and the administration of Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva and Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho. He also comments on the negative aspects of the austerity policy, the president of the European Commission and Portuguese politician José Manuel Barroso, and French President François Hollande.

This paper sho\fv'S that in the last twenty years the structure of the world economy has undergone huge changes cuantivativas and, inevitably, has its counterpart qualitative: the center of gravity of the global economy and its dynamics, sources of credit, investment and technological development and do not focus more exclusively in lhe U.S. and Europe and have begun lo shift lowards Asia, particularly China. Judging by lhe depth of the current crisis and the inability sho'M1 by the former citadels of development, the center of policy design not only recovery, but have shown, too, unable to devise a strategy for grovvth and economic development and their leaders are mired in the implementation of austerity policies vvild only aggravate the disease and amount to resort to amputation to try to cure a cancer patient. Emphasizes, therefore, the engine of world economy vvill continue moving to Asia in alliance vvith the so-called emerging economies, especially those in Latin America but also including India, Russia, South Africa, the Periphery, vvhich offer a more than others, not only political grovvth and development but also a strategy in which the elimination of poverty and increased living standards of millions of human beings is integral to that strategy. There is no reason to prevent such a strategy is adopted in the countries of Central. The c1aim sovereignty over natural resources and their utilization for the benefit of the majority, the South-South cooperation and renegotiation of the North-South course, designed both to create a new VvOrld economic order, have the potential of that humanity had glimpsed on Iy hypothetically or theoretically. Highlights, as the two great obstacles to achieve goals, diabolical dynamics of financiai capital and the unnecessary militarization of former Hegemony. The first destabilizing the economies of the center, dragging in its vortex many of the economies of the periphery, with the usual path of destruction, misery, violence and human suffering. The second, that looms as a constant threat to the possibility of a better world, and most immediately, the obvious target seems to be Latin America. This will soon be off the broad outlines of the alternative to the Centre and the Periphery.

An interview with Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation José Manuel García-Margallo is presented. García-Margallo talks about his role in helping to grow Spain's economy, the state of Spain's financial crisis, and creating favorable economic conditions for Spanish college graduates. He also mentions the country's foreign relations with Chili and comments on the need for an austerity policy and the role of traditional diplomacy.

An interview with Portuguese Prime Minister and leader of the Portuguese Social Democratic Party Pedro Passos Coelho is presented. Passos Coelho comments on Portugal's financial crisis and its political crisis after the resignation of its finance minister Vitor Gaspar during the summer of 2013. He also talks about the country's austerity policy, its deficit reduction, his role, and how European migrants are perceived in the European Union.

Copyright of Futuribles is the property of Futuribles SARL and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revue Internationale du Travail is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)