How to end Britain’s stagnation

Ending Stagnation, the final report of the Economy 2030 inquiry, sets out a serious strategy for ending Britain’s relative decline. At its core is the aim to reverse decades of underinvestment – by private and public sectors alike – built on a realistic understanding of Britain’s strengths. Here, researchers from LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance and the Resolution Foundation present their findings and recommendations

'An Apotheosis of Well-Being': Durkheim on austerity and double-dip recessions

This article is an attempt to contribute a view on the economic crisis from classical sociology, a voice often missing from the sociological response to the crisis. The work of Émile Durkheim provides a unique perspective here centred on morality and inequality produced in a historical context akin to our neoliberal times. It is argued there are four key points to take from Durkheim’s work. Firstly, that the initial credit crunch can be more fully understood with reference to the economic anomie which Durkheim sees as ‘chronic’ in a time of marketization. Secondly, that this creates an antagonistic relationship between a supposedly self-dependent rich and lazy poor. Thirdly, this conception of self-dependency and individual initiative makes any attempt to regulate the economy akin to sacrilege. Finally, the state is unwilling to intervene due to the emergence of ‘pseudo-democracies’. Therefore, Durkheim’s theory accounts for the initial crisis, austerity and double-dip recessions in a sociological framework. The article concludes by returning to the centrality of morality to the crisis for Durkheim and highlighting the omission of this in contemporary debates

Austerity, personalisation and the degradation of voluntary sector employment conditions

This qualitative study of two social care organisations, explores how public sector austerity and policies to personalise social care services through introducing individual budgets in the UK combine to reshape employment conditions. It further explores how these new market relations impact on staff morale and commitment. The individual case summaries reveal a remarkable degree of similarity in terms of employment outcomes, with social care workers experiencing an erosion of the standard employment relationship. Workers experience greater insecurity in areas of pay and conditions, working time, training and development, career prospects, along with work intensification. Worker morale appeared vulnerable as employees struggled to cope with worsening working conditions, but also expressed concerns with quality of care in an era of austerity

Counter-terrorism, smart power and the United States

This article examines smart power, specifically in relation to US counter-terrorism initiatives, focusing on US foreign aid as a soft power instrument. Economic aid and military aid are disbursed under the auspices of USAID and the military is tasked with soft and hard power strategies that have proven problematic to manage as ‘an integrated grand strategy’. Identifying variables that accurately indicate the success or otherwise of smart power as a counter-terror strategy is problematic. Nevertheless a tentative correlation can be drawn between high levels of US aid and low levels of trust in the US in frontline Islamic states. This has led to slippage between hard and soft power and un-smart policy. Consequently a gap has emerged between what the US hopes that the international community will respond to in terms of smart power as a counter-terror initiative and what actually happens. The US has tended to revert to hard power tools in the face of this gap. I argue that foreign aid must not only be soft but ‘sticky’ in order for smart power strategies to succeed

Work-time underemployment and financial hardship: class inequalities and recession in the UK

The economic crisis that led to recession in the UK in 2008–9 impacted in multiple ways on work and economic life. This article examines changes to the work-time of employees. The UK stood out for its recessionary expansion of work-time underemployment. Working in a job that provides ‘too few’ hours can have serious ramifications for the economic livelihood of workers. Working-class workers are central here. Drawing on analysis of large-scale survey data, the article identifies that workers in lower level occupations experienced the most substantial post-recessionary growth in the proportions working ‘too few’ hours. Did these work-time changes narrow or widen class inequalities in feelings of financial hardship? The article concludes that although middle-class workers also saw their financial positions damaged, this so-called ‘first middle-class recession’ did not erode class inequalities in financial hardship among UK workers

Inclusive growth? The relationship between economic growth and poverty in British cities

There is growing concern in many developed economies that the benefits of economic growth are not shared equitably. This is particularly the case in the UK, where economic growth has been geographically uneven and often biased towards already affluent cities. Yet there is relatively little evidence on the relationship between growth and poverty in the UK. This paper addresses this gap with an analysis of the links between economic growth and poverty in British cities between 2000 – 2008. We find little evidence that output growth reduced poverty. While growth was associated with wage increases at the top of the distribution, it was not associated with wage growth below the median. And there was no relationship between economic growth and the low skilled employment rate. These results suggest that growth in this period was far from inclusive

The living wage : policy and practice

A recent development in addressing the longstanding problem of low pay in the United Kingdom has been the emergence of a social campaign for a ‘living wage’. Using a case study approach this article explores an employer's decision to pay the living wage that, in turn, provided both challenges and opportunities for the unions in their dealings with contractors

Perceived needs for support among care home staff providing end of life care for people with dementia: a qualitative study.

This study revealed rich and complex understandings of the practice dimensions of caring for people with dementia at the end of life and the impact these have on staff. There is a need to develop effective psychosocial interventions that focus on emotional support for care home staff. There will be challenges in providing this in employment settings that are generally low paid, low status, have high turnover and are reliant on temporary or migrant staff, where training is not rewarded, mandatory or culturally valued

A 'place based' approach to work and employment: the end of reciprocity, ordinary working families and 'giggers' in a place

The authors define ‘place basing’ as the study of work and employment in a particular place. They are interested in understanding the limitations of work opportunities therein and so focus on workers and jobs that are not subject to the threat of off-shoring or relocation elsewhere but which are low paid and insecure. The authors theorize three contributions to new knowledge that flow from a place-based study of work and employment by demonstrating how precarious flexible often zero hour work eschews reciprocity between employer and employees and workers. They focus their research on ordinary working families and the ‘permissive visibility’ of bad work. The research points to an idealized model of individual and family economic functioning that is able to cope with physical and mental challenges individually without burdening the state. As the findings on workers and households demonstrate, this ideal is far from the reality they experience

‘Fits and fancies’: the Taylor Review, the construction of preference and labour market segmentation

The Taylor Review asserts that ‘certain groups are also more likely to place a greater importance on flexibility such as carers, women, those with disabilities and older workers’. This article draws upon the experiences of workers on non‐standard contracts to explore the notion of worker preference and to expose how the discourse of work–life balance is usurped to provide justification for flexibility in the interest of employers rather than workers, reconstructing labour market segregation