Constitutionalizing Austerity, Disciplining the Household

Bruff, Ian; Wöhl, Stefanie

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190204235.003.0006

Cited by 47 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…A key contribution of feminist political economy has been to bring analysis of the private or domestic sphere into economic debates (Sassoon, 2018). This has been done through a focus on the household as a site of economic activity, inequality and normative contestation and construction (Elson, 1998;Cappellini et al, 2014;Bruff and Wöhl, 2016;Montgomerie, 2016). Analysis of the economics of the household, that is, the economics of care work and social reproduction more broadly, highlights the arbitrary nature of conceptualising the economy as limited to the realm of moneyof paid work, finance, trade and government tax and spending.…”

Section: The Consequences Of Crisesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 Pandemic are very different crises, but they are certainly both gendered. A wealth of empirical work documented the gendered consequences of the GFC, with work focused on the European Union (EU) highlighting the gendered consequences of the austerity measures taken in response to the crisis (Elomaki, 2012;Bettio, 2013;Karamessini and Rubery, 2013;Bruff and Wöhl, 2016;Emejulu and Bassel, 2017). While the economic consequences of the pandemic, and associated policy responses, are still much fresher, there is already a growing empirical literature documenting the gendered distribution of adjustment (Cook and Grimshaw, 2020;Cullen and Murphy, 2021;Rubery and Tavora, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gender and Crises in European Economic Governance: Is this Time Different?*

O’Dwyer

2021

J of Common Market Studies

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There is now a significant literature engaging with questions around gender and economic governance in the European Union. This builds upon research that demonstrates the gendered nature of the economy, and the gendered impacts of policy interventions. This paper draws on that research to develop an account of the gendered nature of the EU's crisis response, moving from analysis of the response to the Global Financial Crisis to some prelimary discussions of the EU's economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper shows how at each stage policies generate gendered consequences, and are built upon gendered assumptions about society and the economy. This paper therefore connects the feminist literature on the European Economic Governance to debates on the COVID-19 response, using a focus on gender and gender equality to examine key continuities between the crisis fighting of the Global Financial crisis to the establishment of the Next Generation EU fund.

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Section: The Consequences Of Crisesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender and Crises in European Economic Governance: Is this Time Different?*

O’Dwyer

2021

J of Common Market Studies

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“…The Blueprint praises the actions of the European Parliament which prioritised 'bringing the legislative proposals quickly into force', and the Council's decision to delegate the formation of its position to the Task Force, which 'enabled a swift emergence of consensus among member states in support of the proposals by the Commission ' (European Commission 2012: 4). Speed and efficacy are often valorised in the pursuit of technocratic or expert led governance (Radaelli 1999;Fischer 1990), and their dominance can serve to exclude other values such as sustainability and equality, meaning they can play a role in building a masculinist technology of governance (Wöhl 2016;Bruff and Wöhl 2016).…”

Section: The Crisis As Politics -'Juncker's Curse'mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This reflects broader trends in the EU studies literature, that have been convincingly critiqued elsewhere (Guerrina, Haastrup, Wright, Masselot, et al 2018). There has been some work that recognises the gendered nature of the economic knowledge underpinning the EU's new governance regime (Guerrina 2017;Bruff and Wöhl 2016). However, this work takes this recognition as a starting point, rather than investigating how such expertise is gendered.…”

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confidence: 92%

Expertise in European Economic Governance: A Feminist Analysis

O’Dwyer¹

2019

JCER

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Recent years have seen a distinctive transformation in EU economic governance, including the introduction of a regime of oversight and recommendation as well as the establishment of new policymaking, oversight and expert institutions at both the European and member state levels. These changes raise questions about legal and political accountability, and about the current state of integration. Debates over the political nature of contemporary economic governance have, thus far, ignored the role that the politics of gender may be playing in constructing and legitimising this regime. While much research has documented the gendered impacts of this regime, there remains a gap in the literature concerning how gender influences the regime itself. This article addresses this gap by exploring two ways in which gender politics have shaped and legitimised the new regime. First, it explores the gendered nature of economic expertise within EU economic governance. Secondly, it explores the framing of the economic crisis, and show how the narratives of the crisis helped to create this gendered regime. The article explores the gendered nature of the process of seeking legitimacy in economic policy, and so the analysis helps to deepen the understanding of the politics behind economic policy more broadly.

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“…However, it is not clear in which direction these distributional changes go. In fact, the turn to austerity in responding to the crisis has altered the distribution of suffering, pushing it onto women and the economically vulnerable (Bruff and Wöhl, 2016;Elomaki, 2012;Kantola and Lombardo, 2017). This rhetoric which hides the disproportionate suffering of women and marginalised groups reflects the gendered and racialised discourses observed in the US housing crisis, leading some to ask who's suffering constitutes a crisis, and whose is to be expected and ignored (Emejulu and Bassel, 2017;Strolovitch, 2013).…”

Section: Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Making sense of austerity: the gendered ideas of European economic policy

O’Dwyer

2018

Comp Eur Polit

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This paper focuses on the role of gender in the generation of coherence and legitimacy of austerity, as applied in the European Union. It examines the rhetorical defences of austerity and unpacks the gendered nature of the reforms that austerity programmes required. The absence of gender sensitive analysis in policy making is an absence that is essential to both the coherence and the legitimacy of austerity. The findings from this discourse analysis are a direct contribution to the project of understanding austerity as an ideological and political phenomenon. This project has, thus far, excluded such considerations. This analysis shows the, often contradictory, roles that gender plays in the discourse of austerity, highlighting the need for research that appreciates the need for such nuances. It also shows how gender plays a role in the key economic arguments for austerity, in particular that of the fiscal multiplier and those surrounding labour market reforms. As austerity in the European Union is normalised and adjusted in coming years, these findings will continue to be relevant until the debates over austerity take gender seriously.

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Constitutionalizing Austerity, Disciplining the Household

Cited by 47 publications

References 0 publications

Gender and Crises in European Economic Governance: Is this Time Different?*

Gender and Crises in European Economic Governance: Is this Time Different?*

Expertise in European Economic Governance: A Feminist Analysis

Making sense of austerity: the gendered ideas of European economic policy

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