Professor Diane Perrons

I have two main areas of research focus – the gender dimensions of economic change and inequality and socially inclusive and sustainable alternatives.

Is austerity gendered? Polity Press, February 2021.

Austerity has dominated the policy agenda in the past decade. Although it appeared to end with the COVID-19 pandemic, a return to harsh cutbacks in the future cannot be ruled out.

In this book I try to show that while austerity policies had devastating effects on many people's lives, their gendered dynamics are particularly evident: budget cuts have been overwhelmingly aimed at services used by women. I also show how the gender aspects of this economic and social catastrophe intersected with a range of other factors, making the experience of austerity very different for different groups - and highly unjust. Not only that, it undermined responses to COVID-19.

I critique the justifications for austerity policies and argue that there are alternatives that can re-invigorate economies and societies post-pandemic, and avoid a return to austerity.

My new project builds on the work of Karl Polanyi and Nancy Fraser to develop an integrated framework for understanding how the contemporary crises in the environment, social reproduction and finance and consider alternatives for progressive, sustainable and inclusive policies.