ABSTRACT

We investigate crisis and austerity in the context of the European Union (EU) by appealing to the work of Pierre Bourdieu. Evidence suggests that after the recent US and Eurozone economic crises, fiscal consolidation intensified the deterioration of socio-economic conditions in Europe. We turn to analyses versed in the Bourdieusian tradition to explain crises and austerity in relation to the domination of the financial field and the ascendancy of neoliberal policies, processes of symbolic violence and misrecognition, and struggles for symbolic power. We then apply this framework to assess the EU economic governance system and the rhetoric imposed on Member States and social partners to justify austerity. Finally, we discuss ways to confront these conditions by presenting Bourdieu’s conception of the ‘collective intellectual’, who collaborates with other social groups in order to uncover the power relations and inequalities generated by neoliberal policies and to promote alternative economic policies for social welfare.

摘要

我们通过诉诸皮埃尔·布尔迪厄 (Pierre Bourdieu) 的工作来调查欧盟 (EU) 背景下的危机和紧缩政策。有证据表明，在最近的美国和欧元区经济危机之后，财政整顿加剧了欧洲社会经济状况的恶化。我们转向精通布迪厄斯传统的分析来解释与金融领域的主导和新自由主义政策的优势、象征性暴力和误认的过程以及象征性权力的斗争相关的危机和紧缩。然后，我们应用这个框架来评估欧盟经济治理体系以及强加给成员国和社会伙伴以证明紧缩政策合理性的言论。最后，我们通过介绍布迪厄的“集体知识分子”概念来讨论应对这些情况的方法，