Times Of Austerity Research Articles

Digital transformation: Learning from Italy’s public administration

Companies and governments have embraced digital transformation as the elixir of the 21st century. But what impedes digital transformation? This case study article is based on data gathered from field research with the Italian Parliament and the Digital Transformation High Commissioner’s Office in the Ministry of the Interior. The case surfaces the context, challenges, and solutions for large-scale public administration digital transformation. The case study highlights how public administration digital transformation in a large democracy is never a technical but a sociotechnical solution. Successful digital transformation needs to understand, address, and change sociopolitical and sociotechnical mores that often define the culture. Underscoring this research is an analysis of digital transformation within the Italian public administration. Public administration encompasses all governmental and public services, including services provided by federal, regional (e.g. states and provinces), municipalities, and local agencies. The Italian public administration, with 60 million people, 8000 municipalities, and 22,000 local administrations, highlights how a digital renaissance is a preface for innovative disruption challenges. The Digital Transformation case uses Italy as the backdrop and Team Digitale, a team of talented individuals embarked on building public administration efficiencies and rebooting Italy’s digital innovation footprint, as the protagonist. For granularity, the case focuses on two digital transformation projects: ANPR, a unified public registry for all Italian residents, and PagoPA, a universal digital payment platform for public administration. This case surfaces the best practices and challenges faced when trying to tackle a mega-project across an entire economy. The case offers digital transformation recommendations, generalizable across any global democracy. The case analysis and recommendations bring to light how, contrary to private organizations, institutionalizing a disruptive innovation in a democratic country at a time of fiscal austerity highlights interesting decision-making issues and facets.

A Media Biopsy: Examining the Quality of Cancer Reporting in Australia, 1997 and 2017

ABSTRACT This article investigates the quality of cancer reporting from a time of prosperity to a time of austerity for the press. Australia is a useful case study because of its concentrated press media market that has experienced a decline in the number of newsroom reporters from the 20th to the 21st century. We undertake a content analysis of news stories published in 1997 and 2017 about cancer treatments and cancer medical research. Using keyword searching techniques of the news database Factiva, 633 news reports about cancer were detected. Of these, 120 stories met the research criteria. Each story was assessed across eight variables using a coding tool, the Media Quality Index (MQI). The study finds 2017 stories had lower scores (equating to less quality) across all eight variables compared to the 1997 cohort. Of statistical significance, 2017 stories were less likely to quantify the benefits of a proposed intervention, while stories discussing medical research were less comprehensive about research findings. The 2017 stories were less likely to discuss side effects or the potential for harm, and were more sensational, with incongruent headlines compared to content. The empirical evidence pointing to a deterioration in mainstream media reporting about cancer has implications for broader health literacy. It may foster unrealistic patient expectations about clinical practice and treatment options, with public policy implications such as overutilization of health services. The study serves as a reminder to medical practitioners that health communication directly with patients is vital as media reporting alone cannot reliably inform patients about their cancer diagnosis and treatment.

A pint to remember: the pub as community militarism

ABSTRACT This article focuses on The Don War Memorial Bar in Stockton-upon-Tees as a themed space. This space ‘made’ through embodied labour, martial images and objects and practices of care and compassion as well as of mourning forges an emotional community that signals specific political effects in times of austerity and in relation to potential immunity for atrocity crime in the context of British imperial war-making (specifically focusing on Northern Ireland). This article builds on diverse and multidisciplinary insights to explore the understudied space of the war-themed pub as a crucial site of everyday liberal militarism delineated by aesthetic and material modes of immersion, memorialization and affective praxis. It makes a significant contribution to ongoing conversations about martial memory-curation and the significance of emotional nationalism crafted through banal sites of encounter and embodied performances. Moreover, it further highlights the importance of the pub, especially in the context of the UK, to ‘everyday IR’ and complex configurations of national atmospheres and geopolitical ritual.

Training Effectiveness in Times of Austerity

Due to the fall in oil price, many companies are looking into ways to cut cost. Despite such cost-cutting efforts fuelled by the constant pressure for companies to stay competitive, the importance of training is still widely recognised. In response to limited training funds, companies are forced to revise their training programmes and make changes in their mode of delivery as part of their austerity measure. One of the approaches taken by an oil subsidiary company in Brunei is the increased use of in-house training and online-based learning (e-learning). This article seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of such a training approach when it is adopted. This allows training to be appraised in tangible terms, i.e. how much trainees have benefited to provide evidence to justify the importance of training, in times when training is assumed to be among the first casualties.

Wage premium in the state sector and state‐owned enterprises: Econometric evidence from a transition country in times of austerity

AbstractThis paper investigates the differences in the wage premium and compliance with the wage cut introduced in Serbia at the end of 2014, between two subsectors of the public sector: the state sector and state‐owned enterprises. Results show that before the austerity measures were introduced, the conditional wage premium was, on average, higher in state‐owned enterprises than in the state sector, with significant differences from the median to the top of the wage distribution. After the austerity measures were introduced, the wage differences between the subsectors deepened, due to lower compliance of state‐owned enterprises with the wage cut.

Understanding the liminality of individual giving to the arts

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of donors to a UK-based contemporary music organisation fundraising scheme through the theoretical lens of liminality.Design/methodology/approachIn-depth interviews with 16 members of the Sound Investment scheme investigated the motivations and experiences of individual donors to the commissioning of new music. Thematic analysis suggested parallels with the framework of “liminality,” which shed new light on the ways in which membership changed donors' relationships with the organisation and audience.FindingsMotivations for supporting contemporary music commissioning included personal interest, cultural responsibility and alignment to the values of the organisation. Tangible benefits, particularly access to rehearsals, brought donors into closer connection with the creative and managerial working of the organisation.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample did not include any lapsed donors, or people who had chosen not to participate. Future research could test the liminal framework in different artforms and through different tangible benefits.Practical implicationsUnderstanding donors as liminals could help arts organisations to develop membership schemes that more effectively sustain individual giving. Key elements of involvement and access are identified that could engage audiences more widely.Originality/valueThis case study foregrounds lived experience of arts donors where previous literature has primarily focussed on motivations for donating. It highlights the liminal elements of becoming an individual donor, namely, the integration and socialisation processes, the space-and time-bound interactions with the organisation and the alignment of values with the organisation. This framework offers a new way for arts organisations to understand and enhance individual giving in a time of austerity.

Perspectives on social workers from within an integrated setting

PurposeThis research explores community professionals' opinions concerning social worker's roles and statutory functions. It explores the perspectives of professionals and their understanding of collaborative and cooperative work; experiences of professional support; opinions on the aspects of anti-oppressive practices in social work; views on social work identity within multidisciplinary team structures; and perceptions regarding the challenges of cultural and contextual drivers of social work practice.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts an interpretivist paradigm and social constructionist epistemology in that there are multiple realities to be understood and different perspectives and perceptions to be explored. This study adopted a data collection approach of thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews.Setting and participantsSocial workers and nurses working within an integrated social care and health NHS trust.MethodsSix respondents volunteered for interviews in 2017. Data were coded as follows using a multistage approach: (1) coding of comments into general categories (e.g. culture, models of practice), (2) coding of subcategories within main categories (e.g. values, knowledge and skills), (3) cross-sectional analysis to identify themes cutting across categories and (4) mapping of categories/subcategories to corresponding comparable research for comparison.FindingsMost interviewees (5) were social workers, with one from the nursing field. Respondents provided comments that fell under four overarching themes: cultural theme, the impact of economic austerity, organisational structures and the political drivers of integration.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the evidence regarding the role of social workers within integrated health and adult social care organisations (as opposed to mental health social work) and also contributes to the evidence around social work in times of austerity.

Owing Everyone: Debt Advice in the UK’s Time of Austerity

ABSTRACT Under UK austerity, people are obliged to pay up: either to the market (those with debt to commercial creditors) or the state (for those receiving welfare benefits – a person may owe the local council or tax office because she is in arrears or was ‘overpaid’). Seeking clarification or counsel from advisers means entering a world where payments often seem to be automated and where the state is ‘giving with one hand and taking away with the other’. Yet payments have a human, even moral/ethical aspect and must be negotiated. The adviser helps the debtor to close the flood gates through which these payments flow, or temporarily to reduce the cascade to a trickle. Under austerity, with legal aid and other funding withdrawn, the advice sector is performing the government’s work of care. Agencies must identify new wellsprings of care and concern, or intensify the demands placed upon existing ones.

Solidarity Dilemmas in Times of Austerity: Auto-ethnographic Interventions


 This article introduces an autobiographical analytical tool that aims to elucidate the complexity and interweaving of opposing ideological positions as these emerge in the field and while writing ethnography. The technique introduced makes visible the split of the author’s identity into two: between that of a hard and a soft Marxist, where each authorial self resonates with a particular local perspective. The split and those who have stimulated it—the real-life protagonists in the field—become reanimated and embodied through the self-mirroring representational lens of graphic ethnography. Overall, the article provides an experimental exercise in reflexive Marxist anthropology, which, apart from ethnographic innovation, engages with the ambivalence and codependence of competing arguments about the ethics of humanitarian solidarity in austerity-afflicted Greece. The essay suggests that local arguments about solidarity are coconstituted through pragmatism and productive self-critique in times of protracted austerity.
 
 Περίληψη
 
 Το άρθρο αυτό εισάγει ένα αυτοβιογραφικό αναλυτικό εργαλείο που στοχεύει στην αποσαφήνιση της πολυπλοκότητας και της συνάφειας αντιθέτων ιδεολογικών θέσεων όπως αυτές προκύπτουν στo ερευνητικό πεδίο και κατά τη διάρκεια της συγγραφής της εθνογραφίας. Η τεχνική που προτείνεται κάνει ορατή τη διάσπαση της ταυτότητας του συγγραφέα ανάμεσα σε έναν σκληρό και έναν αστό μαρξιστή, έτσι ώστε κάθε μια από τις δύο ταυτότητες να αντιπροσωπεύει συγκεκριμένα επιχειρήματα. Η διχοτόμιση του συγγραφέα και εκείνοι που την έχουν εμπνεύσει - οι πρωταγωνιστές της ζωής στο πεδίο της έρευνας - ενσωματώνονται μέσα από τον αυτο-κατοπτρισμό της γραφιστικής εθνογραφίας . Συνολικά, το άρθρο προσφέρει μια πειραματική άσκηση στην αναστοχαστική μαρξιστική ανθρωπολογία, η οποία, εκτός από την εθνογραφική της καινοτομία, αναδεικνύει την αμφισημία και την αλληλεξάρτηση των ανταγωνιστικών επιχειρημάτων σχετικά με την ηθική της ανθρωπιστικής αλληλεγγύης στην Ελλάδα στην περίοδο της λιτότητας. Υποστηρίζεται ότι τα τοπικά επιχειρήματα σχετικά με την αλληλεγγύη αλληλοπραγματώνοντε με ρεαλισμό και παραγωγική αυτοκριτική σε περιόδους παρατεταμένης λιτότητας.

Organisational learning and change in a public sector context

It is broadly accepted that learning is important in supporting the delivery of change. Furthermore, during times of public sector budget cuts there is a growing interest in innovation and change. However, it is also generally accepted that austere times typically lead to a reduction in training and development budgets – particularly within the public sector. This paper explores the extent to which the assumed link between learning and change is contested during austerity. Fifty-one public sector managers from Wales and Scotland participated in the study, over a period of 13 months, from a wide range of public sector organisations across two devolved parts of the UK. The research explored issues surrounding motivations for learning, expectations of outcomes and perceptions around the drivers of change. It is found that public sector budget cuts are having a direct impact on learning and development opportunities across the UK public sector. Whilst budget cuts may lead to change, this is likely to be piecemeal rather than strategic. In conclusion, this research supports the view that austerity is a barrier to meaningful change in the public sector and not a driver.

Greek and Immigrant Kindergarteners’ Dietary Habits and BMI: Attica, Greece in Austere Times

Objective: In this study, we assessed Greek and immigrant kindergarteners’ and their families’ body mass index (BMI), nutritional habits, and level of adherence to the Mediterranean diet during the Greek austerity period beginning in 2009. Methods: A cross-sectional study in Attica, Greece, during the school year 2016-17, enrolling 578 guardian parents and 578 kindergarteners aged ≥ 5-6 years, from 63 public kindergartens in 36 municipalities in Attica’s prefecture. Results: Immigrant mothers experienced twice as high the unemployment rate (21.3%) than Greek mothers (10.5%), with consequent degradation in food products purchasing (p = .03)(non-Greeks 54.3%, Greeks: 49.1%). BMI rates between Greeks and immigrant participants were similar, with significant variations in several lifestyle habits, including Greek parents’ heavier smoking and higher physical activity in parents of different ethnic origin. KIDMED score was “poor” in both Greek and other identity kindergarteners, with slight differences in some of the Mediterranean dietary habits and patterns; strong correlation was expressed between the child’s BMI and KIDMED score, guardian parent’s age, BMI, and overall lifestyle. Conclusions: This study could be a springboard for further research in the understudied population of native and immigrant kindergarteners, reflecting on national and international initiatives and action plans to ensure that their similarities and differences are noted.

Global urbanism and mega events planning in Rio de Janeiro amid crisis and austerity

ABSTRACTPutting Milton Santos’ theorisations in conversation with post-colonial conceptualization of global urbanism, the paper discusses the legacy of mega-events planning in Rio de Janeiro in times of austerity, through the prism of the nexus between globalization and urbanism. Three main interrelated dimensions of the Carioca global urbanism and of the clash between global aspirations and local realities are highlighted and discussed in order to challenge dominant conceptualization of both mega-events planning and austerity urbanism: a) the mobilization of an ensemble of high-tech fantasies as globalist imaginaries of urban planning; b) a complex reconfiguration of the core–periphery geographies of knowledge as a key trait of a perverse globalization; (c) a multitude of discourses and practices of insurgent urbanism as a source of radical imagination against the imperatives of austerity.

Should the routine removal of intra-oral fibro-epithelial polyps be re-classified as an’Intervention Not Normally Funded’?

The excision of intra-oral fibro-epithelial polyps (FEPs) represents a significant workload for maxillofacial departments. In times of austerity does the removal of these benign and often symptom-free lesions represent the best use of NHS resources? Primary care dentists should be able to reliably diagnose and monitor these lesions, just as primary care physicians do with skin tags. We aim to assess the diagnostic yield and costs associated with this procedure.

Managing Misconceptions about EU Citizens’ Access to Domestic Public Healthcare: An EU-Level Response?

This article explores the interaction between EU movement of persons and the access to and financing of public healthcare in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The article will show that particularly in a time of relative austerity and a seeming lack of cross-border solidarity, the non-discrimination obligations in the EU Treaties may encourage the Member States to cut back on tax-funded healthcare so as to not have to extend such care to nonnationals. It suggests that if the Member States cannot effectively rebut the persistent public concerns of ‘EU welfare tourism’ with statistics, it may be preferable for them to seek to address those fears at the EU level (by a re-coordination of responsibility for health care coverage) than to respond to them through domestic law (by increasing individual responsibility for health care costs). Free Movement of Persons, Public Healthcare Organisation, Welfare Tourism, Social Security Coordination

Activism, Anthropology, and Disability Studies in Times of Austerity

How can we practice an “anthropology of disability” that is in respectful alliance with the disabled people and disability groups we study? What does critical theory making look like within the pol...

The Spread and Domestication of the Term “Austerity:” Evidence from the Portuguese and Spanish Parliaments

This article explores what happens when the term “austerity” becomes a global catchword. Specifically, we study how this term has been used in national policy making in the Portuguese and Spanish parliaments from the 1970s until recently. We show that although Portugal and Spain were in a somewhat different situation regarding the 2008 economic crisis, the increased popularity of the term austerity occurred practically simultaneously in the Portuguese and Spanish parliaments. This suggests that the term's popularity in political debates is not solely determined by a nation's political or fiscal situation. Rather, our contention is that employing the term austerity to discuss government policies became a global fashion after the fiscal crisis of 2008. The study also shows why austerity became an increasingly popular concept: the term changed from being mainly used in fiscal policy to being commonly used in other policy areas too.Related ArticlesExadaktylos, Theofanis, and Nikolaos Zahariadis. 2014. “Quid pro Quo: Political Trust and Policy Implementation in Greece during the Age of Austerity.” Politics & Policy 42 (1): 160‐183. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12058Monza, Sabina, and Eva Anduiza. 2016. “The Visibility of the EU in the National Public Spheres in Times of Crisis and Austerity.” Politics & Policy 44 (3): 499‐524. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12163Sager, Fritz, and Markus Hinterleitner. 2016. “How do Credit Rating Agencies Rate? An Implementation Perspective on the Assessment of Austerity Programs during the European Debt Crisis.” Politics & Policy 44 (4): 783‐815. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12165

Being an adult learner in austere times: Exploring the contexts of higher, further and community education

Being an adult learner in austere times: Exploring the contexts of higher, further and community education

The endless story of copayment insurance in Slovenia - is it necessary?

Abstract Issue/problem Slovenia maintains its specific type of voluntary health insurance, which is actually a complementary health insurance (CHI). The main criticism against it was in its regressivity as the premium is flat-rate, equal for all insured. Description of the problem The share of CHE in total health expenditure (THE) has been growing until recently and now represents roughly 15% of THE. Even if remains an important source of financing, there are still pressures to abolish it. The present government again set its abolishment as one of the priorities. As much as it is regressive in essence, some of the negative effects of regresivity were offset by the State stepping in by paying the copayments for those citizens who are in need of social cash benefits. Results CHI contributed to the stability of the funding of Slovenia’s health care system. The space for the increases has become very limited as it covers up to 90% of the price in the case of many medicines, several dental procedures, rehabilitation and similar services. That means that additional increases with offsets to CHI from the compulsory health insurance are not possible. When the need for these emerges, CHI will not be a solution anymore, which means that an alternative needs to be found. From the several options we explored, the most probable is a gradual increase in the compulsory health insurance contributions. Conclusions CHI in Slovenia remains a controversial topic although its criticism has lost edge recently. Partly, this was due to the clear demonstration of its contribution to the stabilisation of the THE in the times of austerity. On the other hand, the mass of money in the compulsory health insurance has increased due to the economic growth and the need to offset costs to CHI was reduced. But, as there is little space left for such actions with the new crisis, a clear scenario on how to address the need for additional funds in the health care system is needed. Key messages Complementary health insurance contributed to the stability of health expenditure during crisis. The main alternative to CHI is its full inclusion into the compulsory health insurance.

Developing a student mental health policy for a South African university: Consultation, contestation and compromise

Given high rates of student mental health difficulties globally, the need for universities to have a student mental health policy has been increasingly recognised. In the South African context, such policies must not only balance the mental health needs of students with the realistic constraints of university resources in a time of austerity, but also engage with complexities posed by the Global North foundations of the fields of psychology and psychiatry and the systemic determinants of mental health. This article describes the development of a student mental health policy at a South African university, with a focus on points of contestation that emerged out of a broad-based institutional consultation process. Areas of contestation included the scope of university support for student mental health, defining mental health difficulties, the use of a disability framework for mental health, and processes of verification. All of these were embedded within a broader tension between health and social justice discourses. The compromises that were designed to balance these complexities within the student mental health policy are discussed, and reflections are offered that may inform the development of student mental health policies at other South African universities.

Learning from temporary use and the making of on-demand communities in London’s Olympic “fringes”

ABSTRACT Community-oriented temporary uses are a subset of interim use in vacant urban spaces, alongside creative and commercial practices. Its proponents argue that they can inform more incremental and residents-led local urban development. Under urban austerity, however, temporary uses can become vehicles for the short-term and conditional delivery of social benefits. In this paper, I analyse a community-oriented interim use project commissioned by a public development body as part of the London 2012 Olympic Games urban regeneration program. Drawing upon policy analysis and interviews with planners, policymakers, architects and community members, I unravel competing discourses, positions, power dynamics and temporalities, and their relationship to the Games’ legacy. The paper contributes to debates about the normalization of temporary urbanism and pop-up geographies in times of urban austerity, shedding light on the potential long-term implications of the logic of “on-demand communities” in urban development and planning.