This symposium looks at the patterns of reproduction and consumption that show the effects of austerity via the way that people have been coping with the economic recession and unprecedented cuts to the public budget. This will include research on the effects of austerity on the home, care, imagined futures and alternatives, and artists Jemma McDonald (Paper Birds) and Alinah Azadeh (creator of Burning the Books) will speak about their recent projects.

The event is free, but booking is essential. Lunch and refreshments provided.

Image credit: Burning the Books IX (Brixton) 2015 Alinah Azadeh Photo by Luke Forsyth

Programme Schedule

11:30- 13:00 - Culture, consumption and reproduction
Chair: Wendy Hein

‘Austerity Futures: Debt, Temporality and Pessimism as an Austerity Mood’
Rebecca Coleman, Goldsmiths

‘Feeding the family in hard times: mothers’ self-discipline in their everyday shopping’
Benedetta Cappellini, Royal Holloway and Vicki Harman, Royal Holloway

'Waiting out the recession: Au pairs and their hosts copin with austerity'
Rosie Cox, Birkbeck

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:30 - Ethnographies and performances of coping
Chair: Louise Owen

‘Broke’
Jemma McDonald, Director, The Paper Birds Theatre Company

‘Burning the Books’
Alinah Azadeh, Artist

15:30-15:45 Short break/Coffee

15:45-17:15 Ethnographies of austerity and future alternatives
Chair: Kate Maclean

"'The Romanians Are Coming': A Feminist Analysis of the Anti-Immigration Discourse Under Austerity in the UK."
Ioana Szeman, Roehampton

Title tbc
Ruth Pearson, Leeds and Sundari Anitha, Lincoln