Urban Austerity by Barbara Schönig | Sebastian Schipper (Eds.)

Author:Barbara Schönig | Sebastian Schipper (Eds.)
Language: deu
Format: epub
Publisher: Theater der Zeit
Published: 2016-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

5. The rise of an emergency model of social crisis management

Within the tight austerity framework, a primary policy concern has been to provide economic solutions for the recapitalization of the banks and the increase of public revenues, regardless of the social costs. In discursive terms, evictions and confiscations caused by debt are seen as inevitable side effects that create opportunities for real estate capital as well as a new field of public policy. A philanthropic discourse about the need to tackle the destructive effects of austerity has developed parallel to economic restructuring, the shrinkage of the public sector and the welfare state, deregulation of labor relations, and the abrupt destabilization of previous arrangements (Peck, 2011).

According to the troika, private debt management must be accompanied by social policies that cope with the effects of destructive austerity politics. Nevertheless, within the austerity framework, it is suggested that social policy should be reformed into a social safety net, rather than simply dealing with chronic inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of the Greek social welfare model, which narrows an already residual welfare state into one providing only minimal and conditional provisions (e.g. fast cash-transfer schemes). As a result of the crisis, we have witnessed the destruction of previous mechanisms, such as the Workers Housing Organization, and the collapse of social services, especially the healthcare system. The effects of humanitarian crisis (e.g. unemployment, impoverishment, and destitution) are being normalized. A significant part of public funding and efforts is channeled to the development of services and programs for ex-post alleviation of extreme poverty. Given the very limited public financial resources available for social policy, private donations and charitable foundations are turning into key players in the deployment and, often, innovation of social services (Arapoglou & Gounis, 2015).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.