Conclusion: Beyond Austerity

Abstract

This concluding chapter summarizes the book's findings and arguments. It goes beyond the legacy of post-2008 austerity to address more recent events. This includes a preliminary assessment of the intersections between the austerity agenda and the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated economic crisis. The 2020 COVID-19 crisis of reproduction and accumulation is in itself not easily comparable to 2008 given that the latter was largely concerned with credit, banking, and international trade. However, both crises reveal the failures of the neoliberal and austerity models of public provision and labour practices. The chapter thus looks at possible alternatives and ways ahead.