Adopting a feminist methodological position, the central thesis of this dissertation can be separated into three interrelated claims: 1) the UK austerity project is ideological, 2) austerity is a gendered phenomenon, and 3) austerity is actively reversing progress towards a more gender equal society by pushing gender equality issues back into the so-called ‘private sphere’. These central assertions are supported primarily through a combination of the qualitative methodologies of literature review and discourse analysis. In relation to the first claim, I assess the rhetorical underpinnings of austerity presented by various policymakers since the contemporary austerity project’s inception, with such discourse amounting to a justificatory ‘austerity
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However, demonstrating sensitivity towards the power of language in the construction of the phenomenon of austerity does not preclude us from critically examining the tangible impacts of the austerity policies that are facilitated by particular discursive constructions or ‘austerity stories’. The adoption of a relativist ontological position opens up a space whereby the dominant understandings of concepts such as austerity can be challenged and transformed. As Phillips and Jorgensen (2002, 178) note, “[m]eanings are contingent and therefore changeable and, if they change, the subject and the surrounding world also change, making available other possibilities for thinking and acting”. In this sense, the adoption of DA as a methodological tool facilitates the notion that the ontological and epistemological status of austerity can be challenged as part of a collective social process; fundamentally, it aids the conviction posited in what follows that austerity is by no means an inevitable feature of social reality in the UK (Phillips and Jorgensen, 2002, 178). Hence, I merge anti-austerity and feminist perspectives in order to draw attention to the alarming ramifications of austerity for social (in)equality in the UK and highlight the need for an urgent change in policy
However, demonstrating sensitivity towards the power of language in the construction of the phenomenon of austerity does not preclude us from critically examining the tangible impacts of the austerity policies that are facilitated by particular discursive constructions or ‘austerity stories’. The adoption of a relativist ontological position opens up a space whereby the dominant understandings of concepts such as austerity can be challenged and transformed. As Phillips and Jorgensen (2002, 178) note, “[m]eanings are contingent and therefore changeable and, if they change, the subject and the surrounding world also change, making available other possibilities for thinking and acting”. In this sense, the adoption of DA as a methodological tool facilitates the notion that the ontological and epistemological status of austerity can be challenged as part of a collective social process; fundamentally, it aids the conviction posited in what follows that austerity is by no means an inevitable feature of social reality in the UK (Phillips and Jorgensen, 2002, 178). Hence, I merge anti-austerity and feminist perspectives in order to draw attention to the alarming ramifications of austerity for social (in)equality in the UK and highlight the need for an urgent change in policy