The Violence of Austerity

Austerity, a response to the aftermath of the financial crisis, continues to devastate contemporary Britain. In The Violence of Austerity, Vickie Cooper and David Whyte bring together the voices of campaigners and academics including Danny Dorling, Mary O’Hara and Rizwaan Sabir to show that rather than stimulating economic growth, austerity policies have led to a dismantling of the social systems that operated as a buffer against economic hardship, exposing austerity to be a form of systematic violence. Covering a range of famous cases of institutional violence in Britain, the book argues that police attacks on the homeless, violent evictions in the rented sector, the risks faced by people on workfare schemes, community violence in Northern Ireland and cuts to the regulation of social protection, are all being driven by reductions in public sector funding. The result is a shocking exposé of the myriad ways in which austerity policies harm people in Britain.

Introduction: The Violence of Austerity by Vickie Cooper and David Whyte PART I: Deadly Welfare 1. Mental Health and Suicide by Mary O’Hara 2. Austerity and Mortality by Danny Dorling 3. Welfare Reforms and the Attack on Disabled People by John Pring 4. The Violence of Workfare by Jon Burnett and David Whyte 5. The Multiple Forms of Violence Facing Asylum Seekers by Victoria Canning 6. The Degradation and Humiliation of Young People by Emma Bond and Simon Hallsworth PART II: Poverty Amplification 7. Child Maltreatment and Child Mortality by Joanna Mack 8. Hunger and Food Poverty by Rebecca O’Connell and Laura Hamilton 9. The Deadly Impact of Fuel Poverty by Ruth London 10. The Violence of the Debtfare State by David Ellis 11. Women of Colour’s Anti-Austerity Activism by Akwugo Emejulu and Leah Bassel 12. Dismantling the Irish Peace Process by Daniel Holder PART III: State Regulation 13. Undoing Social Protection by Steve Tombs 14. Health and Safety at the Frontline of Austerity by Hilda Palmer and David Whyte 15. Environmental Degradation by Charlotte Burns and Paul Tobin 16. Fracking and State Violence by Will Jackson, Helen Monk and Joanna Gilmore 17. Domicide, Eviction and Repossession by Kirsteen Paton and Vickie Cooper 18. Austerity’s Impact on Rough Sleeping and Violence by Dan McCulloch PART IV: State Control 19. Legalising the Violence of Austerity by Rob Knox 20. The Failure to Protect Women in the Criminal Justice System by Maureen Mansfield and Vickie Cooper 21. Austerity, Violence and Prisons by Joe Sim 22. Evicting Manchester’s Street Homeless by Steven Speed 23. Policing Anti-Austerity through the ‘War on Terror’ by Rizwaan Sabir 24. Austerity and the Production of Hate by Jon Burnett Notes on Contributors Index