Abstract

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 expose of the myriad ways in which austerity policies harm people in Britain.
'Essential reading for our times'
Lowkey
'This book leaves the reader in no doubt that government actions have the power to make or break lives and communities'
Lynsey Hanley, The Guardian, and Author of Estates
'A dazzling collection of short essays which detail how state violence is unfolding in Britain on multiple scales and in myriad forms'
Imogen Tyler, Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University, author of Revolting Subjects: Social Abjection and Resistance in Neoliberal Britain (Zed, 2013)
'An important book'
Counterfire
'In this brilliant book, Vickie Cooper and David Whyte bring together the arguments that break down the sick Tory Party political violence against the people of Britain. This book shows that there is only one response to the imposition of austerity as a crude and violent political strategy, and that is to turn our anger back against the Tories'
Chunky Mark, Artist Taxi Driver
'A vital reminder to tell the tragedy of modern Britain like it is'
Alice Nutter, screenwriter and former singer, Chumbawumba
'Eye opening ... enlightening and an education'
The Canary
'An analytical masterpiece, describing what has happened to our communities as a result of austerity'
John McDonnell MP, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
'A well-written and shocking exposé of the institutional violence of the state'
Morning Star