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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.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

From the end of the third century BC on, the funerary culture of the Etruscan city of Chiusi saw the gradual disappearance of the most expensive containers and tombs. At the same time, there was first a dramatic increase in the number of such monuments, followed by an equally sharp decline in the first century BC. The qualitative development has traditionally been explained using sumptuary laws, which should have constrained funerary expenditure. However, a close examination of the local evidence reveals that this is not only unlikely, but also does not explain the quantitative development and why there was a social and cultural need to constrain these funerary objects in the first place. Using the concepts of distinction and habitus developed by Bourdieu, this paper analyses the developments in Chiusine funerary practice by focusing on social interactions within and between élites and non-élites. This gives both groups agency in a complex social, cultural and political process that caused the criteria for distinction to change, ultimately making funerary culture less important for status differentiation in the rapidly changing context of Hellenistic Italy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This paper analyses a potentially path shaping moment for the UK’s public parks by analysing a pivotal case study of park neoliberalisation. Like many municipal parks, Gunnersbury Park in West London is experiencing the effects of local government budget cuts. Governance, policy and physical changes have been introduced to reduce dependence on public funding and the result is a more commercially oriented park. This case is used to better understand how the period of neoliberal austerity 2010–2019 reshaped municipal parks. The paper highlights concerns over the transparency and accountability of the social enterprise that now manages Gunnersbury Park. It also shows how neoliberalisation and commercialisation are manifested in the park landscape: free events are replaced with ticketed ones, spaces for sport are transformed into bookable facilities, cafes are taken over by corporate chains and playgrounds are supplemented with paid entry alternatives. One of the main consequences is the financial and symbolic exclusion of those unable or unwilling to pay. The paper explores who has contested the recent changes, and why. Opponents are dismissed as idealistic NIMBYs but, by refusing to accept the post-political inevitability of park neoliberalisation, they are helping to ensure Gunnersbury Park remains a public and open space. The case is contextualised by situating it within a review of new park governance arrangements across London, and by comparing neoliberalisation processes here with those affecting New York parks. Ultimately, the research highlights the pitfalls of shifting away from the public funding and public management of municipal parks.

Purpose This paper aims to use the experience of an in-person event that was forced to go virtual in the wake of COVID-19 as an entryway into a discussion on the broader implications around transitioning events online. It gives both practical recommendation to event organizers as well as broader reflections on the role of digital libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on their personal experiences with the datathon, as well as a comprehensive review of literature. The authors provide a candid assessment of what approaches worked and which ones did not. Findings A series of best practices are provided, including factors for assessing whether an event can be run online; the mixture of synchronous versus asynchronous content; and important technical questions around delivery. Focusing on a detailed case study of the shift of the physical team-building exercise, the authors note how cloud-based platforms were able to successfully assemble teams and jumpstart online collaboration. The existing decision to use cloud-based infrastructure facilitated the event’s transition as well. The authors use these examples to provide some broader insights on meaningful content delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value Moving an event online during a novel pandemic is part of a broader shift within the digital libraries’ community. This paper thus provides a useful professional resource for others exploring this shift, as well as those exploring new program delivery in the post-pandemic period (both due to an emphasis on climate reduction as well as reduced travel budgets in a potential period of financial austerity).

In this collection we revisit the enduring phenomenon of uncertainty in health care, and demonstrate how it still offers coherence and significance as an analytic concept. Through empirical studies of contemporary examples of health care related uncertainties and their management, our collection explores the different ways in which uncertainty may be articulated, enacted and experienced. The papers address a diverse range of healthcare contexts - Alzheimer's disease, neonatal surgery, cardiovascular disease prevention, cancer, addiction (use of alcohol and other drugs during pregnancy), mental health/disorders and medical education - and many tackle issues of contemporary relevance, such as an ageing population, and novel medical interventions and their sequelae. These empirical papers are complemented by a further theoretical contribution, which considers the role of 'implicit normativity' in masking and containing potential ethical uncertainty. By mapping themes across the collection, in this introduction we present a number of core analytical strands: (1) conceptualising uncertainty; (2) intersections of uncertainty with aspects of care; (3) managing uncertainty; and (4) structural constraints, economic austerity and uncertainty work. We reflect on the methodological and theoretical stances used to think sociologically about uncertainty in health care, and the strengths, silences and gaps we observe in the collection. We conclude by considering the implications of the insights gained for 'synthesising certainty' in practice and for future research in this area.

PurposeThe paper examines the different trajectories of externalisation and the development of different kinds of welfare mix in three different sub-sectors of socio-educational services: long-term care for the elderly, early childhood services and kindergartens. By integrating the industrial relations and comparative public administration literatures, it analyses the different rationales underpinning contracting-out decisions of Italian local governments.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a multi-method, multi-level approach: quantitative data on the provision of socio-educational services and the nature of the providers are combined with the analysis of 12 case studies of municipalities through 80 semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis.FindingsThe paper argues that differentials in labour regulation across the public/private divide and the consequent possibility to access labour markets characterised by cheaper labour and higher organisational flexibility are a key explanation in local governments' decisions to outsource. Despite labour market factors playing a prominent role, their relevance is significantly tempered by political and social factors and particularly by the strong opposition of citizens, personnel and trade unions to pure market solutions in the provision of such services. However, the centrality of these factors depends on the nature of the services: political sensibility against privatisation proved to be stronger in kindergartens, while services for the elderly were more frequently and less contentiously privatised.Originality/valueThe main contribution is the integration of the two research traditions to analyse patterns of outsourcing in the socio-educational services in Italy, showing that neither of them is able, alone, to explain the different private/public mix characterising different social and educational services.

This paper analyses the scope, origins, justification, and commitments of the extended fund arrangement (EFA) signed by the Ecuadorian government and the IMF in March 2019. This agreement, which represents a little more than a third of Argentina’ Stand-By Agreement, promotes Central Bank independence, austerity, as well as structural adjustment policies, but its basic’ diagnosis omits external sector problems. This paper presents the implications and contradictions of the agreement to promote structural changes in the real sector and how these foster policies that protect the interests of bondholders and bankers.

This paper draws upon regulationist perspectives to explore the rationales which inform low-carbon economic development at the city level. This work is developed through a case study of low-carbon policy making in Liverpool, UK. The paper identifies conflict between those who argue for deeper engagement with the emerging low-carbon policy domain, and others who remain committed to maintaining existing patterns of growth. The paper argues that regulationist-inspired perspectives particularly help understand places where the transition to a low-carbon economy can falter in the face of competing agendas such as reigniting growth and coping with austerity.

In 2012, unions representing teachers and education workers in Ontario, Canada, were faced with Bill 115, legislation used by the provincial government to impose a collective agreement upon education workers and remove their right to strike. With a specific focus on the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, this paper is an insider view of how Bill 115 and the external political contexts of the time affected Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation’s internal democratic practices at the height of the struggle. It employs theories of union democracy in order to consider how external forces can shape teacher unions’ internal democracy, and how the competing pressures faced by union leaders can impact their actions and decisions. This paper takes the view that internal union democracy is an important consideration in teacher unions’ resistance to government austerity agendas.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how residualisation is experienced across a supported housing provider in an English county. The analysis is in three parts: firstly, it focuses on organisational provision, including impacts of change on decisions on market entry and exit; secondly, it reviews evidence on service provision and the adaptations services are making to reflect the changing pressures of the sector; finally, it considers the impacts on service delivery and the experiences of those that rely on the provision.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis uses interview data across the organisation, together with material from the UK Government department consultation (2017) and a UK Parliamentary Select Committee inquiry (2017) to examine the impacts across the different tiers of service, including the day-to-day experience of residualised services for those that deliver and receive that support.FindingsThe paper concludes that residualisation is a direct outcome of the neoliberalisation of welfare states, introducing limits to state involvement and funding, a greater emphasis on quasi-market involvement in the sector and a shifting of responsibility from government to individuals.Research limitations/implicationsIt not only demonstrates the impacts of reducing state support on the supported housing sector but also emphasises the importance of residualisation as a conceptual framework applicable to the wider implications of austerity and neoliberal ideology.Practical implicationsThis paper demonstrates the way that the burden of responsibility is being shifted away from the public provision of support and onto the individuals. This can be problematic for the individuals who are vulnerable as a result of their economic medical or social circumstances.Social implicationsThe retreat of the state from supported housing is both a political change and an austerity-led change. This article provides insight from a single-supported housing provider. In so doing, it illustrates the pressure such an organisation is under.Originality/valueThis paper provides a unique insight from the perspective of all levels of a supported housing service provider, combined with the analysis of government consultation and parliamentary inquiry.

This paper seeks to show how male politicians can draw on performances of masculinity to appeal to voters. The paper is interested in former UK Prime Minister David Cameron as an example of how performances of masculinity interact with the opportunistic use of populist forms of rhetoric. It argues that while Cameron’s performances of populism are often situated in compatible policy initiatives such as the “big society” (Higgins, 2013; Alexandre-Collier, 2016), we can identify a more sustained use of masculine performance in producing what Moffitt (2016) describes as a “performance” of alignment with the people. Building on work carried out in relation to the mediatisation and personalisation of politics in the last 50 years, this paper shows how gendered performances of political leaders can be seen to mirror changes in society, whilst at the same time exploring how this is can be hazardous. Whilst the ‘new man’ who is a hands-on father might be seen to appeal to Western voters, this paper will show how David Cameron attempted to draw on this performance of masculinity in his first term as UK prime minister, but soon realised that there are limits to such appeal in age of austerity.

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.

Analyses of protest dynamics in Croatia are rare, partially because until know it was not possible to view them systematically. Relying on the newly collected protest event data 2000-2017, this paper describes the main trends and dynamics of protest activities in Croatia in the observed period. It re-examines Beissinger and Sasse's claim about the absence of austerity related protests in Croatia after 2008. The analysis shows that though protests directly addressing austerity were relatively scarce, when the protest set is expanded to protests which demanded free public education, advocated labour rights, and fought for the right to the city, the prevailing thesis about "quietism" in Croatia can be challenged. The paper aims to relate some of the observed protest dynamics to Kerbo's distinction between movements of crisis and movements of affluence. Focusing on the period between the student movement in 2008 until Facebook protests in 2011, it shows that the student movement and "the right to the city" movement preceded Facebook pro- tests in formulating and expressing socio-economic grievances and articulated anti-systemic sentiment. Due to their strong organizational structure, resources and activists' "know-how", these movements resemble Kerbo's movements of affluence. On the other hand, the 2011 Facebook protests lacked organizational structure and continuous engagement and can be seen as movements of crisis., Rijetke su analize prosvjedne dinamike u Hrvatskoj, djelomice zato što se dosad nije mogla analizirati sustavno. Oslanjajući se na nove podatke o prosvjednim događajima od 2000. do 2017, ovaj rad opisuje glavne trendove i dinamiku prosvjednih aktivnosti u Hrvatskoj u tom razdoblju. Rad preispituje tezu Beissingera i Sasse o nepostojanju prosvjeda protiv politike štednje u Hrvatskoj nakon 2008. Unatoč tome što su prosvjedi koji su se izravno ticali politike štednje bili relativno rijetki, ako se uzorak prosvjednih događaja proširi na prosvjede koji su zahtijevali besplatno javno školstvo, zagovarali prava radnika i borili se za pravo na grad, onda je upitan stav o "tišini" u Hrvatskoj. Ovaj rad kani povezati dio prosvjedne dinamike s Kerbovom razlikom između pokretâ u vremenima krize i obilja. Usredotočujući se na razdoblje od studenskih prosvjeda 2008. do Facebook-prosvjeda 2011, rad pokazuje da su studentski pokret i pokret "Pravo na grad" prethodili Facebook-prosvjedima u formuliranju i izražavanju socijalno-ekonomskih zahtjeva te artikuliranju antisistemskih osjećaja. zahvaljujući snažnoj organizacijskoj strukturi i resursima aktivista, ti su pokreti nalikovali na Kerbove pokrete u vrijeme obilja. Istodobno, Facebook-prosvjedima nedostajali su organizacijska struktura i kontinuirano sudjelovanje građana te odgovaraju pokretima u doba krize.

In April 2016, 200 people in the London Borough of Lambeth occupied Carnegie Library, forcibly preventing its closure by a local council rolling-out deep austerity measures. The nine-day occupation was a high-point of 15 months of struggle to ‘Defend the Ten’ libraries in Lambeth against an austerity agenda the council sought to smoothly administer. Through an in-depth account of the struggle, this paper tells a story of the occupation foregrounding the protracted process and persistent interventions that led up to it. In doing so, it makes two contributions to critical geographical literatures on post-crisis austerity, responding to calls for rich, processual, and multi-scalar accounts of how austerity measures are downloaded and rolled-out, as well as experienced and resisted in everyday and undecided ways. First, going beyond an account of austerity as a fiscal policy imposed on cities from above, the paper makes visible the everyday spatial violence of austerity that is rolled-out, experienced, and resisted as a slow spoiling of social infrastructure. Second, it makes sense of the ambivalent (post)politics of austerity, developing an account of everyday dissensus to reveal mundane non-evental ruptures and the emergence of demands for real democracy in a context of closure shaped by forces of dispossession.

This paper offers an alternative approach to some of the temporalising logics and imaginaries which have dominated debates around the post-political and post-democracy. It does this through engaging with the writings of figures associated with the ‘First New Left’ notably Stuart Hall and E.P. Thompson between 1956 and 1962. I argue that their essays in texts such as Out of Apathy bear some striking similarities with the claims of literatures relating to post-politics and post-democracy. Their work I argue repays substantive engagement; however, because through its attentiveness to emergent practices and geographies of antagonism, it offers a more generative and politically strategic resolution to some of the common discontents of consensus and marketisation of politics that has characterised work on post-politics. The paper develops these arguments through a discussion of how the uneven geographies of politicisation and trajectories of the Scottish left(s) in different parts of the post-war period have shaped and impacted on the spatial politics of austerity in significant ways.

In this paper I ground a brief account of the impact of COVID-19 on the United Kingdom in an understanding of a decade of austerity politics from 2010 to 2020, itself a product of the advent and consolidation of post-1970s financialised or rentier capitalism. I argue that such an analysis is essential if realistic plans are to be laid for a “better”—understood here as a more equitable or “fairer”—society. I go on to consider the contributions that sociology can, and arguably should, make to this end. This involves a range of engagements from scholarship at one end of the spectrum to action or muckraking sociology at the other. In addition to plotting a role for sociology, I suggest a set of criteria for recognizing a “fairer society”; postulate a series of institutional reforms that might characterize the attainment of such a society; and outline and confront social structural, cultural and agential obstacles to its realization. A theme running throughout the paper is that the delineation and promulgation of the “good society” remains central to any credible—that is, post-Enlightenment reconstruction of - the sociological project.

The currently ongoing COVID-19 crisis has challenged healthcare around the world. The call for global solutions in international healthcare pandemic outbreak monitoring and crisis risk management has reached unprecedented momentum. The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 imposes the most unexpected external economic shock to modern humankind, triggering abrupt consumption and behavior pattern shifts around the world with widespread socio-economic impacts. In order to alleviate unexpected negative fallouts from the crisis, governments around the world have incepted the largest ever amount of strategic economic bailout rescue and recovery packages that particularly focus on economic and social targets. The potential focus of bailouts and recovery ranges from urban-local and national to even global and future-oriented beneficiaries, as pursued in public investments on climate stabilization in the United States Green New Deal or the European Green Deal Sustainable Finance Taxonomy. Large-scale and future-oriented governmental investments are valuable macroeconomic multipliers that can benefit society as a whole in the short run and long term. Economic multipliers trickle down positively in society since governmental spending incepting projects leads to increased salaries, opportunities to support a family and employ other people in the consumption of goods and services, to name a few economic multiplying growth opportunities in the wake of governmental spending. This paper proposes the idea that multiplier effects may vary based on the causes that receive governmental funding. Evidence of country differences in multiplier effectiveness already exist. Multipliers also appear to trickle down in society with a certain time lag. Lastly, multiplier effects can also be negative if the government chooses to cut spending during austerity measures. The discussion proposes potential future hypothesis testing opportunities for investigating healthcare dependent multipliers. Given the enormous amount of governmental COVID rescue and recovery aid in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis and the blatant importance of health in the eye of the pandemic, the time has come to investigate if there is a certain effect of governmental spending on healthcare that influences the multiplier. In order to understand a potential multiplier effect of governmental spending on healthcare, a healthcare dependent multiplier effect could test if healthcare related governmental spending leads to a higher or lower than 1.6 multiplying factor. If a relation between multiplier effects and healthcare exists, a future step would be to investigate if it also holds or varies for particular governmental investment in prevention and preventive healthcare. If there are effects for governmental spending on healthcare, well-being and social welfare are potential moderators of the effect. In the 21st century, healthcare is directly related to digitalization and technological advancement, which could be other moderators to control for. Lastly, corruption has been found to be negatively related to quality healthcare and may also be accounted for in future healthcare related multiplier investigations. The paper ends with an outlook on policy implications of the prospective envisioned research. KEYWORDS: Austerity, Coronavirus, Corruption, COVID-19, Digitalization, Economic contraction, Economic growth, European Green Deal, Finance, Green New Deal, Government spending, Health, Healthcare, Multiplier, Negative multiplier, Pandemic, Positive multiplier, Prevention, Preventive care, Public policy, Recovery, Rescue and recovery aid, Social welfare, Trickle down effect, Well-being

Estimating the impact of the crisis on income distribution requires up-to-date information. Due to the complexity of income surveys such as EU-SILC, income data usually become available with considerable delay. In this context, micro-simulation models are an appropriate and widely used alternative to bridge the gap in official data, allowing for an early evaluation of the distributional impact of changes in tax-benefit policies and in the wider economy. This paper analyses the effects of the Greek crisis on inequality and poverty in 2009-2014 using the micro-simulation model EUROMOD. Specifically, the paper updates earlier OECD estimates of distributional effects of the crisis in 2009-2012, and provides new estimates for 2013-2014, a period for which survey data are not yet publicly available. The results indicate that inequality, as measured by most indicators, rose in 2010-2013 as the recession deepened and unemployment rose, and fell back in 2014 as the economy stabilised. Relative poverty seems to have increased in 2012, after remaining broadly unchanged in the previous two years; in 2013 it appears to have stabilised, while in 2014 it fell back to only slightly above its level in 2010 (13.8% vs.13.2% respectively). This pattern is more pronounced when poverty is measured against an “anchored” benchmark: the proportion of population whose income fell below a poverty line anchored in pre-crisis terms increased steadily and steeply, until 2014 when it finally stabilised at 27.4% (from 13.2% in 2010). Not all population groups were affected evenly by recent developments: the rise of poverty in 2010-2013 especially affected the unemployed, the self-employed, the young, the middle-aged, families living in Athens, families paying rent or mortgage rather than outright owning their dwelling; on the contrary, relative poverty actually fell among groups traditionally seen as ‘poor’, such as farmers and the elderly – although in the latter case the relative improvement in terms of income may have been offset by difficulties in access to health care. The paper also assesses first-round effects of austerity policies on the income distribution given changes in the wider economy, i.e. abstracting from second-round effects associated with the deflationary impact of austerity on output. In this sense, early austerity policies per se appear to have had a small positive distributional impact, partly offsetting the increases in inequality and poverty due to the recession. As fiscal consolidation intensified in 2012, tax and benefit policies appear to have exacerbated the adverse distributional effects of the recession, causing poverty and inequality to rise further. From 2013, austerity policies seem to have had a more equalizing effect, especially at the bottom of the distribution and in terms of its distance from the top. This working paper relates to the 2016 OECD Economic Survey of Greece (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economic-survey-greece.htm).