AUSTERITY, COMMUNITY ACTION,
AND THE FUTURE OF CITIZENSHIP
IN EUROPE
Edited by Shana Cohen, Christina Fuhr and Jan
Jonathan Bock
First published in Great Britain in 2017 by
Policy Press University of Bristol 1-9 Old Park Hill Bristol BS2 8BB UK Tel +44 (0)117 954 5940 e-mail
North American office: Policy Press c/o The University of Chicago Press 1427 East 60th Street Chicago, IL 60637, USA t: +1 773 702 7700 f: +1 773-702-9756
Policy Press 2017
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ISBN 978-1-4473-3103-2 hardcover
ISBN 978-1-4473-3108-7 ePub
ISBN 978-1-4473-3107-0 Mobi
ISBN 978-1-4473-3104-9 ePdf
The right of Shana Cohen, Christina Fuhr and Jan-Jonathan Bock to be identified as editors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Reader's Guide
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In Memory of Matt Teather, friend and colleague
Contents
| Shana Cohen and Jan-Jonathan Bock |
| Patrick Diamond |
| Gabriella Elgenius |
| Amardeep Bansil |
| John Morris |
| Paul A Jones and Michelle Howlin |
| Chris Price |
| Sabine Werth |
| Sarah Greenwood |
| Martin Stone |
| Christina Fuhr |
| Stefan Selke |
| Thomas Jeffrey Miley |
| Jon Lawrence |
| Christopher Baker |
| Jan-Jonathan Bock and Shana Cohen |
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the generous support of the Templeton World Charity Foundation and an anonymous donor. They provided the funding for both the initial roundtable event 'Austerity and Our Social Future', that brought the authors together, and for the research that informed the Introduction and the Conclusion by Shana Cohen and Jan-Jonathan Bock, as well as Christina Fuhr's chapter on solidarity.
As the editors, we would also like to thank our host institution, the Woolf Institute in Cambridge, and several individuals working there, who either contributed to the pan-European research project on 'Trust and Community Building' or helped with the organisation of the roundtable event, or both. They are Claire Curran, Samuel Everett, Ed Kessler, John Lyon, Tina Steiner, Jessica Tearney, Matt Teather, Austin Tiffany and Miriam Wagner.
We would also like to thank the editors at Policy Press Rebecca Tomlinson, Ruth Wallace and Laura Vickers who were very helpful and supportive throughout the process, particularly since the volume involved a number of authors from different backgrounds and countries.
Finally, we are grateful to the authors and to those they interviewed, who shared their life experiences and the challenges they have faced during times of hardship. Throughout the book, both those who provide help and those who receive it have indicated the importance of solidarity and community for achieving any kind of positive change.
Notes on contributors
Christopher Baker is Director of Research for the William Temple Foundation and William Temple Professor Religion and Public Life at the University of Chester. He has written and researched extensively on the role and contribution of religion to public life in the UK and Europe and engages with a wide variety of perspectives: theology, political philosophy, critical human geography, sociology of religion and social policy. The themes of his work include ideas of spiritual and religious capital and the post-secular city.
Amardeep Bansil is a Senior Adviser with the Lead on Research and Campaigns at Greenwich Citizens Advice Bureau. He has been actively involved in various charities such as Victim Support and Havering Citizens Advice Bureau of which he was Chair of Trustees from 2012 to 2015.
Jan-Jonathan Bock has a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge, and is currently a Junior Research Fellow at the Woolf Institute in Cambridge, UK. He is studying intercultural initiatives and the production of trust in heterogeneous communities in Berlin and Rome.
Shana Cohen is Deputy Director of the Woolf Institute in Cambridge, UK and Associate Researcher with the Sociology Department at the University of Cambridge. She led on a comparative analytical project exploring local responses to austerity in Europe.
Patrick Diamond is University Lecturer in Public Policy at Queen Mary, University of London, and Vice-Chair of the Policy Network think tank. He has served as a special adviser in the UK government and as an elected official in the London Borough of Southwark.
Gabriella Elgenius is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Gothenburg and Associate Member of the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford. Gabriella completed her PhD as a Marie Curie Fellow at the London School of Economics and later held a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford, Department of Sociology and Nuffield College. She is currently researching diaspora and identity politics, the repatriation of cultural heritage, nationalism and national populism.
Christina Fuhr is Research Fellow at the Woolf Institute and St Edmund's College in Cambridge, UK. As part of her work at the institute, she researches the impact of austerity on foodbanks and homeless shelters in the UK and Germany.
Sarah Greenwood is the London foodbank network manager for The Trussell Trust. She is responsible for managing a network of 38 foodbanks working from 104 centres across Greater London.
Michelle Howlin is Chief Executive of Waltham Forest Community Credit Union. Michelle holds an MSc in local economic development from the London School of Economics and has led the credit unions' 5,000 members, nine staff and 43 volunteers since August 2012.
Paul A Jones runs the Research Unit for Financial Inclusion in the Faculty of Education, Health and Community at Liverpool John Moores University.
Jon Lawrence is Reader in Modern British History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Emmanuel College. He is currently writing a history of everyday life in postwar England using the surviving field notes of major social science studies.
Thomas Jeffrey Miley is Lecturer of Political Sociology in the Department of Sociology at Cambridge. He received his BA from UCLA (1995) and his PhD from Yale University (2004). He has lectured at Yale University, Wesleyan University and Saint Louis University (Madrid), and he has been a Garcia-Pelayo Research Fellow at the Centre for Political and Constitutional Studies in Madrid. His research interests include comparative nationalisms, language politics, the politics of migration, religion and politics, regime types and democratic theory.
