The production and reproduction of inequality in the UK in times of austerity

Abstract

. The paper also benefited from the very helpful comments and input of three anonymous reviewers.Thanks and gratitude to all, but errors and omissions are the author's alone. AbstractInequality appears to be back on the intellectual and political agenda. This paper provides a commentary on this renewed interest, drawing on an empirical discussion of inequality in the UK. The paper argues that inequality should be seen as produced in the inherently unequal social relations of production, drawing attention to the role of social struggle in shaping dynamics of inequality. However, inequality is not just produced in dynamic class struggle in the formal economy, but also through the social reproduction of labour power on a day-to-day and inter-generational basis. As such, inequalities of household resources at any point in time may be reproductive of greater future inequality. It is argued that inequality has risen in the UK over recent decades because of changes in the social relations of production in the formal 2 economy and social reproduction in the domestic sector, both of which have witnessed significant state interventions that have increased structural inequalities. It is argued that, absent of significant change, the underpinning structural dynamics in the UK will lead to further increases in inequality over the short and longer-term.Given this, we might expect to see an already emergent 'New Politics of Inequality' intensifying in the coming decades.

Social reproduction strategies: Understanding compound inequality in the intergenerational transfer of capital, assets and resources

“…On the other hand, home ownership has fallen dramatically, especially for younger generations, corresponding to an increase in private renting. Given that private rents are on average 40% of household income, while mortgage costs are on average 20% of household income, this relates to a direct subsidy by less affluent households of the longer-term welfare strategies of more affluent households (Nunn 2016). This has a cumulative longer-term impact associated with inheritance also.…”

“…Where households succeed at adapting to competitive pressures at higher scales, they may gain resources that are useful in facilitating future success. Where they fail, the inverse is clearly true, impeding their ability to cope with competitive pressures on a day-to-day and inter-generational basis (Hargreaves et al 2018; Nunn 2016).…”

“…There is also some tentative aggregate evidence that similar dynamics in household strategies might be relevant to the UK case. For example, research (Nunn 2016) shows that households have already adjusted to economic insecurities in ways that are shaped by pre-existing inequalities. This is visible, for instance, in the housing market where inequalities are often increasingly present in relations of accumulation and disaccumulation between households as mediated via housing and credit markets rather than just the labour market.…”

Do Employment Services Need to Be Neoliberal?

“…But they need to do so in a way that does not merely lead to domestic female labour in the household being replaced by lowpaid and low-quality jobs undertaken by women in the market. Where this has taken place, partly because of the pressure from employment services to activate women, it has actually reconfigured gender inequalities rather than reduced them, and it has accentuated inequalities between households (Nunn, 2016; see also Chapter 2). Similarly, activation and conditionality imposed through employment services may narrow and shorten the decision horizons that poorer households operate with, relative to more wealthy ones (Breen & Goldthorpe, 1997), reproducing inequalities into the future.…”

The political economy of Public Employment Services: measurement and disempowered empowerment?

“…They play a particular role in governance processes, and so serve to produce and reproduce power relations that are intrinsic to those processes. They serve to embed a political economy into social relations within and between households and between households and firms through sub-state scale activity (Nunn, 2016).…”