Deepening Neoliberalism, Austerity, and Crisis

A Crisis of Crisis Management? Evaluating Post-2010 Housing Restructuring in Nanjing, China

“…Both scenarios represent active state intervention to manage a housing crisis, itself created through previous state interventions. This crisis of crisis management approach in Nanjing is similar to the approach adopted in other contexts to deal with the effects of the global financial crisis; neoliberal policies were deepened rather than questioned (Mercille & Murphy, 2015). However, because of the low financial return for local governments, both attempts have not been effectively fulfilled as planned at the local level.…”

The Madoffization of Irish society: from Ponzi finance to sociological critique

“…However, nuanced appreciation should not obfuscate the brutal power of institutionally enforced debt relations and how these underpin various forms of accumulation by dispossession. For example, privatization in Ireland, or appropriation of public assets by private interests, was a condition of the IMF‐EU bailout, with funds from asset sales used to reduce newly inflated sovereign debt (Mercille and Murphy ). This fits with Krippner's () point that financialization, as a privileged site of accumulation, accrues political advantage thus necessitating analyses that transcend banks.…”

“…Such writings, from disciplines ranging from geography to media studies (e.g. Mercille and Murphy ; Preston and Silke ), are important but they could be augmented using ‘the sociological imagination as social critique’. As per Dinerstein, Schwartz and Taylor's (: 861) recommendation, one aim here is to offer ‘a critique of society and its fetishized separation from the economy’ as part of a renewed sociology that aims to ‘broaden the scope of knowledge beyond disciplinary boundaries or theoretical frameworks’.…”

“…McDonough (), a rare economist in Ireland insofar as he employs Marxian theory, has offered insightful analyses of the crash and austerity. However, he does not receive the publicity enjoyed by neoclassical economists who defend neoliberal capitalism, or ‘capitalism with the gloves off’ (Mercille and Murphy : 8).…”

“…Whereas in 2011 the 300 richest people in Ireland were worth approximately €57 billion, with close to €6.7 billion added to their combined wealth between 2010 and 2011 (Webb ), by 2016 they were worth over €87 billion (Webb ). Yet, the government and business media justify austerity by claiming ‘Ireland is broke’ (Mercille and Murphy : 83). Alternatively, calls for more equitable policies are obscured by appeals to rewarding ‘entrepreneurship’ (tax subsidized wealth extraction).…”