Poverty, Crisis and Resilience

新Horizons in Social Policy series

Edited by Marie Boost, Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Germany, Jennifer Dagg, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland, Jane Gray, Maynooth University, Ireland and Markus Promberger, Head, Department of Joblessness and Social Inclusion, Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Germany and Institute for Sociology, University of Erlangen, Germany

Poverty remains a problem in Europe, raising the need for new solutions. In this thought-provoking book the contributors delve deeply into the everyday lives of poor households to see which practices and resources they apply to improve their situations. One of the book’s key findings is that social resilience requires a functioning welfare state operating at an increased level. In addition to sufficient welfare transfers, there is a need for low-commodified common goods to be made available not only for the registered poor but all low-income households.

‘The aftermath of the 2008 crisis left many communities across Europe facing serious problems, with the capacity of households to endure hardships pushed to the limit. In this exceptional volume the editors have brought together and distilled the multi-disciplinary and cross-country work of over thirty researchers to reveal a multiplicity of household strategies for survival, often drawn from past practices. In doing so they have, through careful questioning and analysis, reclaimed the once tainted notion of “resilience”. Freed from all heroic connotations and seen to reside within the historically received structures of daily life, here “resilient households” are placed within their civil society where “self help” sits alongside mutual aid, public provision and charitable giving. It is all suggestive of an approach that can illuminate and direct public policy toward creating a better life for people in deprived areas now and in the post COVID future.’
– Huw Beynon, Cardiff University, UK

‘This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking contribution to ways of thinking about poverty, based on new research by multi-disciplinary teams in nine countries and putting the concept of resilience centre stage. The comparative approach is sensitive to institutional, structural, and local contexts, and the interview, biographical, and photographic data are vivid and compelling. Resilience is a contested concept, not without critics, but the authors make a strong case for understanding processes of resilience in adversity and everyday lives. Highly recommended.’
– Jane Millar, University of Bath, UK

‘This timely collection of reflections about resilience practices, and the social, cultural and economic resources mobilised by households to cope with poverty, offers a fresh and innovative perspective concerning the tricky EU metaconcept of resilience. Poverty, Crisis and Resilience provides a transdisciplinary and cross cultural contribution to the literature on poverty and resilience. It is essential and fascinating reading for anyone interested in a sociological approach to resilience.’
– Amparo Serrano-Pascual, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain