Research'Exploring the Potentiality of Anti-Austerity Resistance in the UK: Observations from Liverpool' The research is supported by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) through the North West Doctoral Training Centre. My research explores grassroots 'anti-austerity' resistance in the UK and the politics that are emerging from this. Specifically, I ask, to what extent does this resistance move beyond protest and a 'scream' against - a mere repudiation of austerity - towards the construction of coherent political alternatives to austerity and capitalism. How, for example, can anti-austerity politics move beyond defensive and isolated struggles - 'firefighting' - towards building significant counter-power against austerity? How can we imagine alternative political futures? My research also reflects on some of the perceived limits of anti-austerity politics in initiating political change. Will the final resolution entail a return to the status quo ante, or might a more progressive outcome be negotiated? I focus on the Liverpool context - a city blighted by the most severe austerity measures (the local authority has suffered real-term budget cuts of 58 per cent) whilst also suffering some of the highest levels of multiple deprivation in the country. As an active participant within the city's anti-cuts movement, I reflect on those problematics facing the British Left using both post-politics and Antonio Gramsci's theory of counter-hegemony. If you would like to discuss my research, please email me at [email protected]. |