Unequal and gendered: assessing the impacts of austerity cuts on public service users

Hastings, A. , Matthews, P. and Wang, Y. (2021) Unequal and gendered: assessing the impacts of austerity cuts on public service users. Social Policy and Society, (doi: 10.1017/S1474746421000543) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

A decade of austerity has amplified concern about who gets what from public services. The article considers the socio-economic and gendered impacts of cuts to local environmental services which have increased the need for citizens to report service needs and effectively ‘co-produce’ services. Via a case study of a UK council’s decade of administrative data on citizen requests and service responses, the article provides one of the first detailed analyses of the unfolding impact of austerity cuts over time on public service provision. It demonstrates the impact of austerity across the social gradient, but disproportionately on the least affluent, especially women. The article argues for the importance of detailed empirical examination of administrative data for making visible, and potentially tackling, long standing inequalities in public service provision.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The research reported in this article was made possible by the Economic and Social Research Council’s support for the Urban Big Data Centre (ES/L011921/1 and ES/ S007105/1).
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hastings, Professor Annette and Wang, Dr Yang
• Authors: Hastings, A., Matthews, P., and Wang, Y.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Journal Name: Social Policy and Society
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• ISSN: 1474-7464
• ISSN (Online): 1475-3073
• Published Online: 06 December 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © The Author(s) 2021
• First Published: First published in Social Policy and Society 2021
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
190698		Urban Big Data Research Centre	Nick Bailey	Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)	ES/L011921/1	S&PS - Urban Big Data
304042		UBDC Centre Transition	Nick Bailey	Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)	ES/S007105/1	S&PS - Administration