Emotions of austerity: Care and commitment in public service delivery in the North East of England

Abstract

In the context of an austerity agenda constructed through the deployment of aversive emotions, we offer a more-than-rational understanding of the implications of geographically uneven austerity politics for organisations providing public services for marginalised groups.The article highlights how emotions are at the heart of the experiences of those delivering services in the North East of England and considers the emotional toll of changes under austerity on the professional lives of participants, but also those impacts which relate to wider interpretations of loyalty and care beyond individual participants. Due to the nature of occupational roles which involve an ethos and practice of commitment, and through relations with decision makers, colleagues, service users and broader definitions of community and marginalisation over time, participants are engaged in a range of emotional work. We explore how recent experiences have highlighted a continued and in some cases accelerated undermining of their work and communities of which they are, in different ways, a part. However, they are also seen as generative of a set of significant emotionally charged responses to such challenges, which variously challenge and conform to the dominant discourse of austerity.

Public sector accounting, accountability and austerity: more than balancing the books?

“…Reeves et al (2014) demonstrate that where the Troika has implemented its austerity measures there has been a higher reduction of public spending on healthcare, compared to those countries that did not apply for external financial support. Such changes have reportedly resulted in worsening safety levels, general working conditions and job satisfaction among healthcare professionals, with negative emotional impacts Clayton, et al, 2015;Newbold and Hyrkäs, 2010). In countries such as Greece and Ireland, the Troika interventions have been accompanied by an increase in the number of persons without health insurance coverage and with low access to medication and health care treatment, coupled with an overall cost-shifting by government back onto households (Simou and Koutsogeorgou, 2014;Thomas et al, 2014).…”

“…At the local government level, as Barbera et al (in press) point out, the traditional budgetary accounting system appears to have left a certain degree of budget flexibility with local authorities, enabling them to keep the level of social and political consensus high or acceptable, at least in the short and medium term, even in conditions of financial, fiscal and economic stress. In this respect, Clayton et al (2015) show how the organizational response to austerity was also to adapt and conform to the dominant discourse in order to try and maintain resources and levels of service.…”

‘It’s good but it’s not enough’: the relational geographies of social policy and youth mentoring interventions

“…Thus the project discussed in this paper sits firmly within stated national priorities across all aspects of young people's policy, including youth justice (Croall 2006, Scottish Government 2009. In the youth justice arena, mentoring and 'diversion' for specific young people sit alongside broader preventative measures directed at building community capacities and utilising community wardens (Allen andStern 2007, Brown 2013), as well as more 'carceral' approaches (Schliehe, 2014) while increasing evidence emerges of the potential displacement of 'soft' services from statutory agencies to the (potentially cheaper) voluntary sector in the context of cuts to public-sector funding (Bunt and Harris 2010) and of wider crises of social care across the sector in the context of austerity (Clayton, Donovan and Merchant 2015). There are also debates about how such measures might stigmatise some young people and overlook others (and their needs) by stepping away from 6 'universalism' towards targeted provision, as youth work and youth justice fuse (Williamson, 2009) and austerity measures contest (or even undermine) the diversity of professional youth work provision (Bradford and Cullen 2014).…”

The contingent challenges of purposeful co‐production: Researching new migrant employment experiences in the North East of England

“…In this research some of the challenges encountered were structural, some practical, but they were also often emotional. This related to the political and ethical basis of research interests on behalf of academics involved (Gray, ), but also crucially to the investments by both those experiencing migration (Boccagnia & Baldassarb, ) and those looking to best support the interests of these communities (Clayton et al, ).…”