Alternatives to austerity

Abstract

We are in the age of austerity. Across the globe, there have recently been calls from both the left and the right to rethink policies of austerity and to rein in the forces of globalization. Over the past two years, anti-austerity sentiment has been a major factor in public votes in Europe and the US. Anti-globalization, anti-debt and anti-PPP movements are gaining broad support. Claiming to speak for ordinary families hit by the effects of austerity, parties across the political spectrum are scrambling to improvise new policies. Some alternatives to austerity are simply old ideas repackaged or reappropriated and help to legitimize the current status quo, yet others seem to offer genuine respite from the established order, claiming new forms of social relations and redistribution. The authors argue that only through an analysis of the longer-term origins and multiple guises of austerity can we move towards proposals for social change. They challenge established understandings of austerity and ask readers to imagine seemingly utopian alternatives. Overall, they ask: how can we give a new critical meaning to the concept of the public good?