Deprivation, class and crisis in Europe: a comparative analysis

ABSTRACT

Analysing data from an original cross-national survey conducted in 2015 in nine European democracies covering five different types of welfare regime and asking individuals a variety of questions on their deprivation during the crisis, this paper shows that there are important cross-national and cross-class inequalities in deprivation as reported by individuals in different social classes. Cross-nationally, deprivation patterns reflected the welfare regimes of the nine countries as well as the severity of the economic crisis. Working class individuals in countries that were not so deeply affected by the crisis were generally found to be worse off than middle class individuals in countries that were more deeply affected. Semi/unskilled manual classes were found to be the most deprived and class differentials were diminished but not accounted for in multilevel models including a series of controls linked to risk factors and socio-demographic position. At the macro-level, higher inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient was associated with higher levels of reported deprivation. However, cross-level interaction tests did not provide evidence that being in semi/unskilled manual occupations has a further heightened effect on reported deprivation in contexts of higher inequality or lower social spending.

KEYWORDS:

• Class
• deprivation
• crisis
• Europe
• comparative

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the European Commission 7^th Framework Programme: project name Living with Hard Times: How European Citizens Deal with Economic Crises and Their Social and Political Consequences (LIVEWHAT) [grant agreement number 613237] coordinated by the University of Geneva (Marco Giugni). The authors are extremely grateful to all the participants at the LIVEWHAT paper workshop in Warsaw on 19-20 May, 2016 for their feedback and in particular to Marco Giugni and Maria Mexi. We would also like to thank the Editor and the reviewers at European Societies for their useful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Maria Grasso is Professor at the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield. She is the author of Generations, Political Participation and Social Change in Western Europe (2016) and co-editor of Austerity and Protest: Popular Contention in Times of Economic Crisis (with M. Giugni, 2015). Her research focuses on political sociology and political engagement. She is European Editor of Mobilization: An International Quarterly.

Sotirios Karampampas holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Sheffield. He received his BA in Political Studies and Public Administration from the University of Athens (2008), and his MA in International Politics and Security Studies with Distinction from the University of Bradford (2009). His research interests are in contentious politics, social movements, political violence and radicalisation. His work has recently been published in Acta Politica and Politics and Policy.

Luke Temple is a Teaching Associate in Political Geography at the University of Sheffield. His research looks at political and electoral geography, democratic theory, and patterns of digital engagement.

Barbara Yoxon is an Associate Lecturer in Quantitative Methods and Political Science at the University of York. She received her doctorate in political science at the Department of Politics, at the University of Sheffield and has been awarded the BISA Michael Nicholson Prize for the best doctoral thesis in International Studies in 2018. Her main interests include democratisation, political prejudice, nationalism, international conflict, and regime change.

ORCID

Maria Grasso http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6911-2241

Sotirios Karampampas http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0908-8315

Luke Temple http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2605-2285

Barbara Yoxon http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0810-1282

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Commission: [Grant no. Seventh Framework Programme 613237]. Project: Living with Hard Times: How European Citizens Deal with Economic Crises and Their Social and Political Consequences (LIVEWHAT) coordinated by the University of Geneva (Marco Giugni).