Call for papers: The urban politics of social reproduction under austerity

AAG Annual Meeting (Denver, 6-10 April 2020)

Session organizers: Cesare Di Feliciantonio (Manchester Metropolitan University & University of Leicester) & Cristina Temenos (University of Manchester)

More than a decade after the explosion of the global financial crisis, austerity remains an overarching and pervasive logic within national and municipal public policies. Despite proclamations on ‘the end of austerity’ in several countries, public expenditure on social care health and welfare benefits remains lower than the years prior to the 2007 global financial crisis, affecting city governments and the most vulnerable urban inhabitants in viscerally material terms. The impact of austerity on poverty, homelessness, health and social services provision, longer waiting times to access healthcare, increased mental health issues, and worsened access to healthy food, among other issues is well documented (Alexandri 2017, Davies and Blanco 2017, Karanikolos et al 2013, Reeves et al 2013). While local institutions are trapped between the commitment to deliver public services amidst increased demand and decreased resources from national governments and tax bases, urban areas often emerge as the most affected by austerity, maintaining and deepening spatial inequalities. However, the logics and politics of social reproduction promoted by local policymakers and service providers responsible for delivering services under austerity remains understudied. This session aims to bring together scholars working in different geographical locations who question the complex relationship between austerity and the urban politics of social reproduction from different disciplinary perspectives. Topics of interest can include, but are not limited to:

- austerity and health inequalities in the revanchist city;

- the gendered and racialized dimension of urban social reproduction under austerity;

- the discipline of bodies and sexualities in the name of austerity;

- austerity, stigmatized places, and health inequalities;

- grassroots responses to austerity in healthcare;

- environmental justice, health and inequalities;

- austerity urbanism and social reproduction;

- migrants, health and the politics of urban social reproduction;

- the everyday dimension of austerity and health outcomes

If interested, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words to Cesare Di Feliciantonio ([log in to unmask]) and Cristina Temenos ([log in to unmask]) by October 18^th 2019.

Decisions on submitted abstracts will be communicated by October 23^rd.

Reminder: once you have submitted an abstract to us, you will also need to register AND submit an abstract on the AAG website. The AAG abstract deadline is 30 October 2019: https://annualmeeting.aag.org/AAGAnnualMeeting/Call_for_Submissions/AAGAnnualMeeting/DeadlinesandSubmissions.aspx?hkey=4ee737d4-29c6-4971-bc08-b2b06e751d71

References

Alexandri, G. (2018). Planning Gentrification and the ‘Absent’ State in Athens. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 42(1), 36-50.

Davies, J. S., & Blanco, I. (2017). Austerity urbanism: Patterns of neo-liberalisation and resistance in six cities of Spain and the UK. Environment and Planning A, 49(7), 1517-1536.

Karanikolos, M., Mladovsky, P., Cylus, J., Thomson, S., Basu, S., Stuckler, D.,& McKee, M. (2013). Financial crisis, austerity, and health in Europe. The Lancet, 381(9874), 1323-1331.

Reeves, A., Basu, S., McKee, M., Marmot, M., & Stuckler, D. (2013). Austere or not? UK coalition government budgets and health inequalities. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 106(11), 432-436.