Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow: power, expertise and the hegemonic temporalities of austerity

Abstract

This article addresses the temporality of politics and policy, examining the hegemonic temporality of austerity discourses and practices and the social role of knowledge and expertise in finance capitalism. An overview of conceptualisations of “time” and “temporality” in critical social science and critical policy studies is followed by a non-determinist exploration of the temporalities of expertise and austerity. The example of Greek Government-troika negotiations in the first half of 2015 is taken as a case study of the disciplining of the European periphery, in which the imposition of hegemonic temporalities becomes a crucial mechanism for the operation of power. A concluding section sketches out elements of a possible counter-hegemonic temporality.

Keywords:

• Temporalities
• policy
• austerity
• expertise
• Greek crisis