IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v39y2021i3p555-573.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relational expertise and the spatial (re)production of austerity: Challenges and opportunities for progressive politics

Author

Listed:
  • Adam Standring

Abstract

What is the role of expertise in reproducing austerity and how might this be challenged by the left? The implementation of austerity policies, the widespread public backlash to these policies and the role that expertise has played in their implementation have contributed to highlighting many of the pathologies of neoliberalism, particularly widening geographical and intergenerational divisions. This article adopts the sociological approach to expertise developed by Harry Collins and colleagues in the ‘Studies of Expertise and Experience’ field. Here expertise is understood as relational in the sense that expertise is not recognized by the extent to which it can be said to be right but rather experts are recognized by their own social group. It argues that this relational approach to expertise is explicitly political in nature, involving inclusions and exclusions based on pre-existing power relations and can be further extended to incorporate the relational nature in which various forms of expertise or knowledge are accepted as being authoritative by the broader public. Using examples from the UK, Portugal and Spain, principally in the area of housing and urban politics, this article explores how expertise under neoliberalism can be understood spatially. Local expertise under austerity is focused on either minimizing social harms which may arise – food banks, housing shelters, community social care – or else is directed towards competing for external investment, promoting policies of regeneration and gentrification for the benefit of foreign capital rather than existing populations. A progressive, relational and political expertise should, however, not merely point to the failures of the current system but shape events. The recent growth in social movements has made some progress in challenging austerity, in practice and discourse, and points towards a more joined-up thinking in which knowledge production is clearly and unambiguously linked to action.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam Standring, 2021. "Relational expertise and the spatial (re)production of austerity: Challenges and opportunities for progressive politics," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(3), pages 555-573, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:39:y:2021:i:3:p:555-573
    DOI: 10.1177/2399654419873674
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2399654419873674
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2399654419873674?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oscar Berglund, 2018. "Contesting Actually Existing Austerity," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 804-818, November.
    2. Fahmida Rahman & Daniel Tomlinson, 2018. "Cross Countries: International Comparisons of Intergenerational Trends," LIS Working papers 732, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    3. Liam Stanley, 2014. "'We're Reaping What We Sowed': Everyday Crisis Narratives and Acquiescence to the Age of Austerity," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(6), pages 895-917, December.
    4. Johan Christensen & Cathrine Holst, 2017. "Advisory commissions, academic expertise and democratic legitimacy: the case of Norway," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 44(6), pages 821-833.
    5. Roger Pielke & Gwyn Prins & Steve Rayner & Daniel Sarewitz, 2007. "Lifting the taboo on adaptation," Nature, Nature, vol. 445(7128), pages 597-598, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ross Beveridge & David Featherstone, 2021. "Introduction: Anti-politics, austerity and spaces of politicisation," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(3), pages 437-450, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ines Wagner & Mari Teigen, 2022. "Egalitarian inequality: Gender equality and pattern bargaining," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 486-501, March.
    2. Aronsson, Thomas & Schöb, Ronnie, 2018. "Climate change and psychological adaptation: A behavioral environmental economics approach," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 79-84.
    3. Ben Rosamond, 2020. "European Integration and the Politics of Economic Ideas: Economics, Economists and Market Contestation in the Brexit Debate," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(5), pages 1085-1106, September.
    4. Zagaria, Cecilia & Schulp, Catharina J.E. & Zavalloni, Matteo & Viaggi, Davide & Verburg, Peter H., 2021. "Modelling transformational adaptation to climate change among crop farming systems in Romagna, Italy," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    5. Rachel Einecker & Andrew Kirby, 2020. "Climate Change: A Bibliometric Study of Adaptation, Mitigation and Resilience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Klaus Eisenack & Leonhard Kähler, 2012. "Unilateral emission reductions can lead to Pareto improvements when adaptation to damages is possible," Working Papers V-344-12, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2012.
    7. Benjamin Preston & Richard Westaway & Emma Yuen, 2011. "Climate adaptation planning in practice: an evaluation of adaptation plans from three developed nations," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 407-438, April.
    8. Clemens Heuson & Wolfgang Peters & Reimund Schwarze & Anna-Katharina Topp, 2015. "Investment and Adaptation as Commitment Devices in Climate Politics," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(4), pages 769-790, December.
    9. Dobes Leo & Jotzo Frank & Stern David I., 2014. "The Economics of Global Climate Change: A Historical Literature Review," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 65(3), pages 281-320, December.
    10. Klaus Eisenack, 2014. "The Inefficiency of Private Adaptation to Pollution in the Presence of Endogenous Market Structure," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 57(1), pages 81-99, January.
    11. David Parker & Yoko Akachi & Donna Goodman, 2009. "Global Climate Change and Child Health: A review of pathways, impacts and measures to improve the evidence base," Papers indipa09/5, Innocenti Discussion Papers.
    12. Matteo Roggero & Leonhard Kähler & Achim Hagen, 2019. "Strategic cooperation for transnational adaptation: lessons from the economics of climate change mitigation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 395-410, October.
    13. Lukas Linsi, 2022. "Economic Narratives and the Legitimacy of Foreign Direct Investments," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(3), pages 98-109.
    14. Beth Bee, 2014. "“Si no comemos tortilla, no vivimos:” women, climate change, and food security in central Mexico," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(4), pages 607-620, December.
    15. Martin Stadelmann & Åsa Persson & Izabela Ratajczak-Juszko & Axel Michaelowa, 2014. "Equity and cost-effectiveness of multilateral adaptation finance: are they friends or foes?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 101-120, May.
    16. Alam, Md. Mahmudul & Siwar, Chamhuri & , Abu N.M. Wahid, 2019. "Resilience, Adaptation and Expected Support for Food Security among the Malaysian East Coast Poor Households," SocArXiv hkbwn, Center for Open Science.
    17. Guillaume Simonet & Alexia Leseur, 2019. "Barriers and drivers to adaptation to climate change—a field study of ten French local authorities," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 155(4), pages 621-637, August.
    18. Åsa Persson & Adis Dzebo, 2019. "Special issue: Exploring global and transnational governance of climate change adaptation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 357-367, October.
    19. Arun Agrawal & Nicolas Perrin & Ashwini Chhatre & Catherine S. Benson & Minna Kononen, 2013. "Climate policy processes, local institutions, and adaptation actions: mechanisms of translation and influence," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(1), pages 72-72, January.
    20. Ivan Petkov, 2023. "Public Investment in Hazard Mitigation: Effectiveness and the Role of Community Diversity," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 33-92, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:39:y:2021:i:3:p:555-573. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.