Absorbing the shock of austerity: the experience of local government workers at the front line

ABSTRACT

Whilst post-GFC austerity state retrenchment is widely studied, there is little research which focuses on the experiences of those who work at the front-line of austere public services. Drawing on qualitative evidence with front-line workers in four UK local authorities significantly impacted by austerity, this paper explores ‘coping mechanisms’ developed by workers to manage resource restriction. It argues that existing conceptualisations of coping mechanisms, such as either resistance or adaptation, are insufficient to understand how workers manage contemporary austerity. This paper proposes an additional mechanism – absorption – and explores analytically how workers cope with austerity in terms of resistance, adaptation and absorption. The paper concludes that front-line local government workers are coping with austerity cuts, in large part, by acting as ‘shock absorbers’ of state retrenchment.

KEYWORDS:

• Austerity
• street level bureaucrats
• local government
• coping mechanisms
• front-line workers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for funding the research on which this paper is based;Joseph Rowntree Foundation [None];

Notes on contributors

Annette Hastings

Annette Hastings is Professor of Urban Studies in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow, UK. She is a Co-I in the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) and in the Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC). Her research focuses on inequalities within cities and the role of public policy and public services in challenging these.

Maria Gannon is an information analyst with Public Health Scotland’s Mental Health Intelligence Team. Her current work focuses on the establishment of an enhanced patient level dataset for mental health service provision. She was formerly a research associate in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow, UK. She has experience in applying quantitative methods in social research in relation to poverty, social exclusion, local government finance, and problem drug use.