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Neoliberal Austerity and Unemployment

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Neoliberal Austerity and Unemployment E L C I ‘…following Stuckler and Basu (2013) T it is not economic downturns per se that R matter but the austerity and welfare A “reform” that may follow: that “austerity Neoliberal austerity kills” and – as I argue here – that it particularly “kills” those in lower socio- economic positions.’ and unemployment The scale of contemporary unemployment consequent upon David Fryer and Rose Stambe examine critical psychological issues neoliberal austerity programmes is colossal. According to labour market statistics released in June 2013 by the UK Neoliberal fiscal austerity policies I am really sorry to bother you again. Office for National Statistics, 2.51 million decrease public expenditure God. But I am bursting to tell you all people were unemployed in the UK through cuts to central and local the stuff that has been going on (tinyurl.com/neu9l47). This represents five government budgets, welfare behind your back since I first wrote to unemployed people competing for every services and benefits and you back in 1988. Oh God do you still vacancy. privatisation of public resources remember? Remember me telling Official statistics like these, which have resulting in job losses. This article you of the war that was going on persisted now for years, do not, of course, interrogates the empirical, against the poor and unemployed in prevent the British Prime Minister – theoretical, methodological and our working class communities? Do evangelist of neoliberal government - ideological relationships between you remember me telling you, God, asking in a speech delivered in June 2012 neoliberalism, unemployment and how the people in my community ‘Why has it become acceptable for many the discipline of psychology, were being killed and terrorised but people to choose a life on benefits?’ arguing that neoliberalism that there were no soldiers to be Talking of what he termed ‘Working Age constitutes rather than causes seen, no tanks, no bombs being Welfare’, Mr Cameron opined: ‘we have unemployment. dropped? been encouraging working-age people to (‘The war against the poor in Britain’, have children and not work’. Cathy McCormack’s Blogs to God, But the best laugh God, is our Prime s If we reject the claims both that 7 May 2013: tinyurl.com/qbyl7dt) n Minister, David Cameron whose o i unemployment causes psychological t government has launched a worse s e outcomes and that psychological states ass unemployment is perhaps propaganda hate campaign against u q cause unemployment, how else can we the most obvious and shocking the poor, unemployed and single make sense of the unemployed Mcontemporary manifestation of parents than Maggie Thatcher did. subjectivity and what are the wider the consequences of neoliberal austerity (‘The war against the poor in Britain’) implications for the discipline of programmes. Even advocates of austerity psychology? make no bones about this. For example, Unemployment is also high across Is it possible to engage with fiscal the Chief Economist Europe, with the austerity and its bedfellows – and Deputy Secretary- European Commission unemployment, poverty, inequality General of the reporting unemployment and neoliberalism – as a psychologist Organization for “Want, disease, ignorance, rates of around 13 per without simultaneously engaging in Economic Cooperation squalor and idleness are cent in April 2013, up politics? and Development being generated by over 1.5 million in a year (OECD), Pier Carlo ‘austerity’ programmes” (tinyurl.com/2672ohz). Padoan, freely admitted Youth unemployment s McCormack, C. (2009). The wee yellow e in the OECD Yearbook tends to be even higher, close c r butterfly . Glendaruel: Argyll 2013 that ‘[a]usterity programmes to to 25 per cent. In Greece this figure was u o Publishing. s restore order to public finances can add to more than 60 per cent in February 2013, e Biehl, J., Good, B.J. & Kleinman, A. (Eds.) r the woes of already struggling economies, against an overall unemployment rate of (2007). Subjectivity: Ethnographic investigations. Berkeley, CA: University leading to more job losses and social 27 per cent. In May 2013 the of California Press. hardship’. Opponents of austerity (e.g. International Monetary Fund (IMF: see Bambra, 2013), put it more strongly: tinyurl.com/kcnxnku) admitted that the s Bambra, C. (2013). All in it together? In C William Beveridge presented to duration on suicide risk in the United Government Statistical Service. e c Wood (Ed.) Health in austerity . Parliament by Command of His States. Health Economics, 21 (3) , Eisenberg, P. & Lazarsfeld, P.F. (1938). n e London: Demos. Available at Majesty. London: HMSO 338 –350. The psychological effects of r e f tinyurl.com/kj4a8tu Brady, M. (2011). Researching Dean, M. (1995). Governing the unemployment. Psychological e r Baxandall, P. (2002). Explaining governmentalities through unemployed self in an active society. Bulletin, 35 , 358 –390. differences in the political meaning ethnography: The case of Australian Economics and Society, 24 (4), Foucault, M. (2008). Lecture 14 Feb 1979. of unemployment across time and welfare reforms and programs for 559 –583. The birth of biopolitics: Lectures at the space. Journal of Socio-Economics, single parents. Critical Policy Studies, Denman, J. & McDonald, P. (1996). Collège de France 1978 – 1979. New 31 (5), 469 –502. 5(3), 265 –283. Unemployment statistics from 1881 York: Palgrave Macmillan. Beveridge Report (1942). Social insurance Classen, T.J. & Dunn, R.A. (2012). The to the present day. Labour Market Fryer, D. (1985). The positive functions of and allied services . Report by Sir effect of job loss and unemployment Trends , January, 5 –18. The unemployment. Radical Community 244 vol 27 no 4 april 2014 austerity to 202 million in you to lose your status as ‘unemployed’; 2013 and 205 million that is, to be disappeared from the in 2014. Moreover, ‘unemployment’ figures in countries such these shocking as the UK using the ILO operationalisation figures severely of ‘unemployment’ (Fryer, 2013). underestimate the number of unemployed people, The costs of unemployment considering as they The accumulating evidence about the do only people of an psychological costs of ‘unemployment’ is age to be employed, now vast. Maynard and Feldman (2011), without employment, for example, reported that their search of available for relevant databases (PsycINFO, SocIndex, employment, etc.) had revealed 31,839 peer-reviewed wanting employment works with ‘unemployment’ in the and having actively abstract published in the previous 50 sought employment years, and there was already a huge in the previous four literature by then (Eisenberg & weeks. Those who do Lazarsfeld, 1938; Österreichischen not engage in active Wirtschaftspsychologischen job search, the so- Forschungsstelle, 1933; Pilgrim Trust, called ‘discouraged’, 1938; Taylor, 1909). This large and do not count. This is diverse body of research has been an operationalisation conducted in a wide variety of that constructs a very geographical settings, across a range of particular way of historical periods, from diverse funding understanding bases and political assumptions, and at ‘unemployment’, as a number of ‘levels’ (individual a taken-for-granted unemployed people, unemployed category rather than families, cohorts of school-leavers, whole historically and redundant workforces, populations of culturally contingent. states or whole countries, etc.); it has Others have explored been characterised by researchers’ use how the ‘problem of of varied methods and research designs Cathy McCormack, whose ‘Blogs to God’ give her views unemployment’ (psychiatric assessment, qualitative on ‘The war against the poor in Britain’: see influenced how interviewing, cross-sectional and tinyurl.com/qbyl7dt and quotes through this article unemployment was made longitudinal surveys using validated intelligible (Walters, 2000) reliable measures, epidemiology, action and politically volatile research) (Fryer, 1986a; but see Fryer, ‘notable failures’ of its insistence upon (Baxandall, 2002). 2013). Meta-reviews have pooled data ‘strong and sustained fiscal consolidation It is vital to reflect on the absence from a variety of studies (e.g. McKee- and deep structural reforms’ in Greece of the ‘discouraged’ in the ILO definition, Ryan et al., 2005; Paul & Moser, 2009). included ‘a much deeper than expected because decades of psychological research There has been, effectively, unanimity recession with exceptionally high have demonstrated beyond reasonable that ‘unemployment’ is not only associated unemployment’ (pp.1 –2). doubt that people who become with but causes individual misery and On a world scale the International ‘unemployed’ are disproportionately mental health problems including anxiety, Labour Organization (ILO) calculated that likely to be positioned by researchers depression, negative self-esteem, global unemployment was 197 million in as depressed, anxious, demoralised, dissatisfaction with life, social dislocation, 2012, with a further 39 million people discouraged, low in self-esteem and community dysfunction and population having ‘dropped out of the labour market socially isolated (Fryer, 2012; Wanberg, morbidity (Classen & Dunn, 2012; as job prospects proved unattainable’ 2012). Becoming ‘unemployed’ can lead Jefferies et al., 2011; Kiely & Butterworth, (tinyurl.com/ozlnsl5, p.2). This increased to psychological reconstitution which leads 2013; Kim et al., 2012). Medicine, 21 , 3 –10. discussion of Jahoda’s explanation of development of a community
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