This panel discussion will look beyond the present into a future without austerity. Participants will discuss the proposals for a social calculus to be applied to government policy and sovereign debt relations as proposed in Laura Bear’s recent book, Navigating Austerity: currents of debt along a South Asian River (Stanford University Press 2015).

How can we develop new forms of policy and politics that prioritise social rather than financial aims for government spending? How might we reform financial institutions so as to give precedence to longer-term goals than those set by market? What can be done to reduce the inequality generated by austerity policies in the UK and across the world? Can we imagine utopian institutions and social movements that could generate abundance, mutual and environmental protection?

Laura Bear is Associate Professor of Anthropology at LSE and author of Navigating Austerity: Currents of Debt along a South Asian river.

Anna Coote is Head of Social Policy at the New Economics Foundation.

Andrea Muehlebach is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto and author of The Moral Neoliberal: Welfare and Citizenship in Italy.

Carly Schuster is a lecturer and researcher at Australian National University.  Her Chicago PhD in Anthropology won the Richard Saller Prize for most distinguished dissertation in the Division of Social Sciences.

Deborah James (@djameslse) is Professor of Anthropology at LSE and author of Money from Nothing: indebtedness and aspiration in South Africa. 

LSE's Anthropology Department (@LSEAnthropology), with a long and distinguished history, remains a leading centre for innovative research and teaching. We are committed to both maintaining and renewing the core of the discipline, and our undergraduate teaching and training of PhD students is recognised as outstanding. 

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEausterity

Slides

A copy of Dr Laura Bear's powerpoint presentation is available to download. Download 'Navigating Austerity: Currents of Debt along a South Asian River'  (pdf).

A copy of Anna Coote's powerpoint presentation is available to download. Download 'PEOPLE PLANET POWER. Towards a New Social Settlement' (pdf).

A copy of Dr Carly Schuster's powerpoint presentation is available to download. Download 'Social Collateral: possibilities of solidariy in austere times' (pdf).

Podcast

A podcast of this event is available to download from Alternatives to Austerity?

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.