Quiet Austerities – Locating Austerity in Nordic and Northern European Contexts

van Lanen, S., Norberg, I. and Kiely, E. (2022) Quiet Austerities – Locating Austerity in Nordic and Northern European Contexts. Multiple Nordic Geographies: 9th Nordic Geographers Meeting, Joensuu, Finland, 19-22 Jun 2022. ISBN 9789526145853

Abstract

European austerity is most frequently discussed in relation to the UK and Southern Europe. The former was led by a series of fiscally conservative governments which proclaimed themselves austere, while the economies of Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, and most prominently Greece were ravaged by Troika-imposed conditionalities. The prominence of these instantiations of austerity is a consequence of multiple geographies. There is a political geography of domination, in which austerity is imposed from above and outside, and a consequent geography of resistance. There is a social geography of poverty and sudden destitution, and a cultural geography through which these privations are ideologically justified. In this introductory commentary, we argue that these geographies work together to render austerity particularly visible in UK and Southern European contexts. In contrast, we wish to draw attention to more hidden modes of ‘quiet austerity’ which operate in Northern Europe and the Nordic countries. Highlighting the history of ‘frugality’ in this region, we suggest that austerity here is longstanding, subtle and marked by uneven geographies which differentially target marginalised social groups. This is a less spectacular mode of austerity, which nonetheless retains many of its brutal capacities. Drawing on case studies from Sweden and the Netherlands, we make the case that scholars of austerity need to turn their attention towards these regions, where austerity is assuming new forms; in turn, these demand new practices of resistance.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Norberg, Dr Ida
• Authors: van Lanen, S., Norberg, I., and Kiely, E.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences
• ISBN: 9789526145853

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