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Variegated Anti-Austerity: Exploring the Demise and Rise of Class Struggle during the Crisis of Neoliberalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2020

David Bailey ,
Nikolai Huke ,
Paul Lewis  and
Saori Shibata
David Bailey
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham, UK E-mail: d.j.bailey@bham.ac.uk
Nikolai Huke
Affiliation:
Institute of Political Science University of Tuebingen, Germany E-mail: nikolai.huke@uni-tuebingen.de
Paul Lewis
Affiliation:
Department of Management, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, UK E-mail: p.c.lewis@bham.ac.uk
Saori Shibata
Affiliation:
Institute for Area Studies, Leiden University, Netherlands E-mail: s.shibata@hum.leidenuniv.nl
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Abstract

This article maps important trends that mark a new stage in neoliberal capitalism since 2008, with a focus on class struggle and resistance in the advanced industrial democracies. New forms of collective action have arisen in response to austerity which has been imposed, in different forms, across most of the advanced industrial democracies, in a context in which established solidaristic institutions – trade unions, social democratic parties, welfare states – have already been eroded as a result of the preceding twenty five years of neoliberal reform. The article presents an overview of these trends, highlighting austerity policies and anti-austerity responses. The article accounts for the rise of new forms of resistance and collective action as they have emerged differently in different national contexts, focusing on developments in the UK, US, Spain, Japan and Germany.

Keywords

Anti-austerity movementsclass strugglecollective actionausteritypolitical resistance
Type
Themed Section: A Hostile Decade for Social Policy: Economic Crisis, Political Crisis and Austerity 2010-20
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 158 - 171
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2020

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