Leading thinkers will study the growing problem of austerity measures at a new specialist centre opening at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU).
DMU's new Centre for Urban Research on Austerity is the first of its kind in the UK and will provide a meeting point for experts from around the world to examine the effects of budget cuts on society.
Drawing together academics, commentators, students, activists and any other figures with an interest in austerity, the centre aims to understand, through collaborative research, the cause and effect of austerity on modern city societies.
The first main piece of research - around which the centre will initially revolve - is a study of austerity in eight major world cities, including Montreal, Barcelona, Athens, Melbourne and here in Leicester.
The study, funded until September 2017, involves experts from universities in each of the studied cities and will look at two main questions: can societies work collaboratively under austerity measures? And are we really all 'in this together', or is government in times of austerity actually more elitist and hierarchical?
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Professor Jonathan Davies is Director of the new centre. He said: "Ultimately, with this research, we hope to say something new about the relationships between city governments and citizens during a period when, to a greater or lesser extent, austerity dominated.
"We are launching the centre at a critical time. After the bubble economies of the 2000s, and the great crash of 2008, austerity has become such a deeply embedded principle of mainstream politics, that it seems unquestionable
"It is the governing orthodoxy in the EU and here in the UK. At the same time, we have seen huge anti-austerity movements explode into life in Greece and Spain.
"The task we want to address with the centre is to study and make sense of austerity, the limitations and contradictions it has and imposes.
"We want to gather contributions from academics, practitioners, commentators and activists or insurgents with an interest in austerity, so that this expertise and discussion can address one of the great social issues of our time."
The centre has been launched alongside a new blog, on which research updates will be published. It can be viewed here.
Posted on Wednesday 25 November 2015