Journal Articles by Alex Nunn
Global Politics, 2020
Many countries around the world instituted a ‘Lockdown’ in response to the novel Coronavirus Covi... more Many countries around the world instituted a ‘Lockdown’ in response to the novel Coronavirus Covid 19, during March and April 2020. We know a great deal about the unequal health effects of the virus but it is important also to understand how the measures to tackle the virus have affected different groups in society. This is particularly important for policy makers as further national or local lockdowns are now being instituted to tackle subsequent waves of infection, and in the event that similar restrictive measures are required to tackle future pandemics. We undertake analysis on a recently released representative survey using a core Subjective Well Being measure and decompose results to identify factors which predict variation in self-reported changes Subjective Well Being during the Coronavirus lockdown in the UK. Our analysis suggests that women and young people have seen the most negative effects on their Subjective Well-Being. It appears that women’s role in the household and in caring professions has acted as a ‘shock absorber’ for the wider economy, but in doing so has ‘depleted’ their Subjective Well-Being. Some older age groups who might have initially been expected to have negative effects have seen very small improvements in their Subjective Well-Being. We also find that ‘furloughed’ and ‘key workers’ have been protected economically and emotionally by the government’s economic support measures in the crisis. We conclude that in the medium to long-term policy attention will need to be given to ensuring that women and younger people do not also pay the longer-term costs of any economic fallout from the crisis, that furloughed workers can maintain their jobs and do not merely see redundancies delayed, and that key workers are rewarded for their role in supporting the economy in good times and bad. While the data and commentary are focussed on the UK context, similar effects may be present in other countries, and international policy coordination efforts may want to focus on identifying and supporting those who have been affected by virus containment measures, now and in future pandemics.
Social Politics, 2023
We report data from longitudinal qualitative interviews with thirteen people claiming Universal C... more We report data from longitudinal qualitative interviews with thirteen people claiming Universal Credit (UC) immediately before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in England. The article utilizes concepts from feminist theory: “Social Reproduction” and “Depletion.” We make several novel contributions, including bringing depletion into conversation with the related concept of “contingent coping.” We argue that the lived experience of UC involves material and emotional depletion, but that UC also helps recipients to “cope” contingently with this depletion. In this sense, depletion through social reproduction is an ongoing and harmful state of being. We show how highly conditional and disciplinary welfare policies both partially mitigate but also accentuate structural pressures associated with an unequal, insecure, and competitive labor market.
British Journal of Criminology, 2022
Overlaps exist between critical Criminology and critical International Political Economy (IPE). H... more Overlaps exist between critical Criminology and critical International Political Economy (IPE). However, while criminologists are keen to engage with political economy, there has been less interest in criminology from scholars in IPE. Recently, though, a literature started to emerge within IPE that focusses on discipline, including research which focusses on ‘authoritarian neoliberalism’ yet without explicitly engaging with the criminological literature. This paper engages with criminological research to demonstrate areas of shared interest, particularly in understanding the role of discipline and consent in the structuring of the ‘social ensemble’ thereby offering something of a corrective to the literature on ‘authoritarian neoliberalism’. We argue that combining insights from Gramscian and (critical) Feminist social theory can help to explain the social reproduction of ‘hegemony’ in which discipline – including self-discipline – plays an important role. Long-term trends in the fracturing of the hegemonic post-war social ensemble were displaced by temporary ‘fixes’ related to consumerism, credit and discipline (including in state institutions, changing economic and ideological structures). However, in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 – the limits of these fixes are revealed and social polarisation is the result. In this context, disciplinary processes in and beyond state institutions are becoming more visible.
New Political Economy, 2021
Review of International Studies, 2022
Children and Society, 2020
The proportion of young people taken into the care of the state has increased recently and ther... more The proportion of young people taken into the care of the state has increased recently and there is evidence that this social group suffer negative long‐term outcomes that might be conceptualised by the emergent criminological category of ‘social harm’. Debates in social work around an ethics of care and justice offer different ways of thinking about responding to social harm. This paper reports findings from an innovative arts‐based intervention with Looked After Children and young people and concludes that holding these competing value sets in creative tension is central to the success of the programme in helping young people to cope with and contest social harm.
The proportion of young people taken into the care of the state has increased recently and there ... more The proportion of young people taken into the care of the state has increased recently and there is evidence that this social group suffer negative long-term outcomes that might be conceptualised by the emergent criminological category of 'social harm'. Debates in social work around an ethics of care and justice offer different ways of thinking about responding to social harm. This paper reports findings from an innovative arts-based intervention with Looked After Children and young people and concludes that holding these competing value sets in creative tension is central to the success of the programme in helping young people to cope with and contest social harm.
Capital and Class, 2019
This article focuses on the way that households respond to 'global pressures' by adapting their s... more This article focuses on the way that households respond to 'global pressures' by adapting their social reproduction strategies (SRS). We understand social reproduction strategies to encapsulate the more or less consciously developed day-today and inter-generational responses to the social conditions that households confront and their own motivations and aspirations for the future. Yet, due to a range of extant inequalities of accumulated and dynamic resources-some of which are material and some of which are at once ethereal and embodied in the concrete labouring capacities of individuals-we argue that social reproduction strategies, and capacities to pursue them, differ widely. Differences are conditioned by positionality, access to information and the construction of 'economic imaginaries' as well as material resources. By looking at these different expressions of social reproduction strategies, we highlight how they reinforce macro-scale socioeconomic pressures, creating what we term 'compound inequality' into the future. Compound inequalities result from different behavioural responses to socioeconomic conditions, inequality and (perceived or
Review of International Political Economy, 2019
The Version of Record of this manuscript is published in Review of International Political Econom... more The Version of Record of this manuscript is published in Review of International Political Economy: 10.1080/09692290.2019.1625424
Abstract Neoliberalism has been a core concern for IPE for several decades, but is often ill-defined. Research offering greater definitional clarity stresses the role of contingent and local level factors in diverse processes of neoliberalisation. This paper contributes to that literature, addressing a surprising gap in critical IPE knowledge; the management practices by which pressures to activate the unemployed and to make them more competitive, are implemented. The paper suggests that performance management, is significant as both a depoliticising policy coordination mechanism and a highly politicised policy implementation practice. The paper invokes a scalar-relational approach which sees the pressure to innovate and compete at lower scales as driven by the political economy of competitiveness at the system scale. The paper reports on research undertaken within the empirical frame of EU meta-governance, showing how performance management is part of lower-scale attempts to adapt to system-scale pressures. It is neoliberalising in both form and content. It concludes by showing that while performance management may be a significant component of neoliberalisation there is scope for engagement and contestation motivated by egalitarian ideals. Critical IPE scholars interested in contesting neoliberalisation should therefore engage with the political economy of management practice as well as policy design.
Policy Studies, 2018
Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs) and Public EmploymentServices (PES) are related components ... more Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs) and Public EmploymentServices (PES) are related components of the European Union andmember state labour market policy. Typically, PES are analysed interms of a narrow concern with efficiency and effectiveness ofservice. In this paper, we argue that PES are constituents inbroader processes. They are not just means to facilitateemployment, they are also part of transmission mechanisms for apolitical economy of competitiveness. They play a particular rolein governance processes, and so serve to produce and reproducepower relations that are intrinsic to those processes. We arguethat the technical ways that PES have been managed over recentdecades has contributed to broader processes of disempoweringlabour, through depoliticized management practices. We arguethat attempts at even limited re-empowerment of labour wouldrequire a repoliticization of these management practices.
Critical Social Policy, 2018
This article reports on a study of local implementation in the UK Troubled Families Programme (TF... more This article reports on a study of local implementation in the UK Troubled Families Programme (TFP). Exploring the experiences of 12 families, the policies of local bureaucrats, and a critical reading of the literature, we argue that the local case represented an attempt to partially renegotiate disciplinary elements of the national programme and to recognise that the families were affected by structural poverty and inequality. Locating the TFP in the literature on disciplinary social policy, multi-scale 'Fast Policy' and the potential for local subversion through the agency of frontline workers, we suggest that the local attempts to renegotiate programme priorities were partially successful. These attempts were characteristic of 'contingent coping' in terms of both institutional processes and outcomes for the families involved. The evidence reported is significant and timely in the context of the expanded and relaunched TFP and this shapes our commentary on the recently published Improving Lives strategy.
Third World Thematics, 2017
The EU suggests that it is committed to ‘sustainable development’ including through its instituti... more The EU suggests that it is committed to ‘sustainable development’ including through its institutionalised relationship with the states of the African, Caribbean and Pacific group in the Cotonou Partnership Agreement. This paper reviews this relationship with a view to outlining the way in which concepts like ‘sustainable development’ and ‘poverty reduction’ act as legitimation for processes of world market expansion. The paper reviews a range of interpretations of this relationship which view it either from a constructivist or material – Uneven and Combined Development – perspective. We critique these interpretations and provide an alternative materialist reading.
Social Policy and Society, 2017
This article looks at the promise of the ‘New Middle Class’ (NMC) inherent in the neoliberal id... more This article looks at the promise of the ‘New Middle Class’ (NMC) inherent in the neoliberal ideological ideal of individualising societal responsibility for well-being and success. The article points to how this promise enables a discourse and practice of welfare reform and a disciplining of life styles particularly targeting the very poor in society. Women and some ethnic minorities are particularly prone to poverty and then therefore also discipline. The article then provides a case study of the Troubled Families Programme (TFP) and shows how the programme and the way it is constructed and managed partly undermines the provision of the material needs to alleviate people from poverty and re-produces discourses of poor lifestyle and parenting choices as sources of poverty, thereby undermining the ‘middle-class’ promise.
Journal of Australian Political Economy, 2017
This paper addresses a simple, and largely empirical, research question: is the I... more This paper addresses a simple, and largely empirical, research question: is the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) recent high level commitment to reducing inequality translated into concrete action in its dealings with member states? Addressing this research question is significant in several respects. First, the high level rhetorical commitment to reduce inequality might be seen as paradoxical because the IMF, alongside other institutions of global economic management, has long been criticised for its role in promoting economic reform in member countries, partly on the basis that this increases inequality (Peetet al. 2009; Kentikelenis et al. 2016: 550-1). It is therefore important to assess the extent to which recent pronouncements on inequality by the Fund suggest a change in emphasis or a genuine institutional commitment. Second, addressing the question contributes to a contemporary academic literature on more technical aspects of how we should understand and interpret IMF policy advice and conditionality. This literature currently focusses on a range of aspects of IMF policy advice, but does not address the recent interest of the Fund in inequality. The paper addresses this lacuna.
British Politics, 2016
Inequality appears to be back on the intellectual and political agenda. This paper provides a com... more Inequality appears to be back on the intellectual and political agenda. This paper provides a commentary on this renewed interest, drawing on an empirical discussion of inequality in the UK. The paper argues that inequality should be seen as produced in the inherently unequal social relations of production, drawing attention to the role of social struggle in shaping dynamics of inequality. However, inequality is not just produced in dynamic class struggle in the formal economy, but also through the social reproduction of labour power on a day-to-day and inter-generational basis. As such, inequalities of household resources at any point in time may be reproductive of greater future inequality. It is argued that inequality has risen in the UK over recent decades because of changes in the social relations of production in the formal economy and social reproduction in the domestic sector, both of which have witnessed significant state interventions that have increased structural inequalities. It is argued that, absent of significant change, the underpinning structural dynamics in the UK will lead to further increases in inequality over the short and longer-term. Given this, we might expect to see an already emergent ‘New Politics of Inequality’ intensifying in the coming decades.
LDCs), among which those in Africa have suffered from extreme marginalisation and exploitation. T... more LDCs), among which those in Africa have suffered from extreme marginalisation and exploitation. This article reveals the often ignored role of the EU in this process. It argues that the EU, through its institutionalised link with Africa, has played a key role in re-designing developmental strategies to complement the global shift to neoliberal accumulation which, in its latest phase, is aimed particularly at the complex, multifaceted and increasingly integrated project to 'lock-in' the gains of capital over labour on a global scale. The article begins with a brief introduction to the complementary projects of 're-designing' and 'locking-in' before considering these against the historical evolution of the Lomé and Cotonou relationship.
Spectrum: Journal of Global Politics, 2015
Socio-economic inequality is now firmly on the international political agenda. In recent years th... more Socio-economic inequality is now firmly on the international political agenda. In recent years the World Economic Forum, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Bank and International Monetary Fund have all produced publications lamenting increased inequality and its impact on political stability, the fragility of the international financial system and growth. This paper argues that this interest needs to be located in the emergence of an expanding ‘world market society’ (WMS) that these organisations are both representative of and have sought to promote. They are now also engaged in a complex process of identifying and seeking to manage systemic risks to WMS expansion, arising from the expansion process itself, with socio-economic inequality now seen as one of these. Several factors though suggest that their efforts may not be successful. These include the lack of capacity of international organisations to manage risk independently of their mainly state-scale allies and their inability to escape the objective of WMS expansion as they seek to manage risks to it. The paper argues therefore that there is an emergent New Global Politics of Inequality whose forlorn objective is to save world market society from itself.
International Journal of Public Administration, Oct 2015
This article asserts that attempts to resolve the crisis through recent changes in European meta-... more This article asserts that attempts to resolve the crisis through recent changes in European meta-governance are just the latest phase in a project to secure ?continual adjustment? in European societies to the systemic demands of competitiveness. The structural pressures experienced at the scale of European societies are located in the process and scale of world market integration. This New Materialist scalar-relational approach sees adjustment to the systemic demands of competitiveness as likely to continue into the future and suggests that the scope for alternative more Keynesian programs of reform through EU meta-governance is highly constrained.
Capital and Class, 2014
The death of Margaret Thatcher in April 2013 sparked a range of discussions and debates about the... more The death of Margaret Thatcher in April 2013 sparked a range of discussions and debates about the significance of her period in office and the political project to which she gave her name: Thatcherism. This article argues that Thatcherism is best understood as a symbolically important part of the emergence of first-phase neoliberalism. It engages with contemporary debates about Thatcherism among Marxist commentators and suggests that several apparently divergent positions can help us now reach a more useful analysis of Thatcherism’s short- and long-term outcomes for British political economy. The outcomes identified include: an initial crisis in the neoliberal project in the UK; the transformation of the party political system to be reflective of the politics of neoliberalism, rather than its contestation; long-term attempts at the inculcation of the neoliberal individual; de-industrialisation and financial sector dependence; and a fractured and partially unconscious working class. In all long-term outcomes, the contribution of Thatcherism is best understood as partial and largely negative, in that it cleared the way for a longer-term and more constructive attempt to embed neoliberal political economy. The paper concludes by suggesting that this analysis can inform current debates on the left of British politics about how to oppose and challenge the imposition of neoliberal discipline today.
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Journal Articles by Alex Nunn
Abstract Neoliberalism has been a core concern for IPE for several decades, but is often ill-defined. Research offering greater definitional clarity stresses the role of contingent and local level factors in diverse processes of neoliberalisation. This paper contributes to that literature, addressing a surprising gap in critical IPE knowledge; the management practices by which pressures to activate the unemployed and to make them more competitive, are implemented. The paper suggests that performance management, is significant as both a depoliticising policy coordination mechanism and a highly politicised policy implementation practice. The paper invokes a scalar-relational approach which sees the pressure to innovate and compete at lower scales as driven by the political economy of competitiveness at the system scale. The paper reports on research undertaken within the empirical frame of EU meta-governance, showing how performance management is part of lower-scale attempts to adapt to system-scale pressures. It is neoliberalising in both form and content. It concludes by showing that while performance management may be a significant component of neoliberalisation there is scope for engagement and contestation motivated by egalitarian ideals. Critical IPE scholars interested in contesting neoliberalisation should therefore engage with the political economy of management practice as well as policy design.
Abstract Neoliberalism has been a core concern for IPE for several decades, but is often ill-defined. Research offering greater definitional clarity stresses the role of contingent and local level factors in diverse processes of neoliberalisation. This paper contributes to that literature, addressing a surprising gap in critical IPE knowledge; the management practices by which pressures to activate the unemployed and to make them more competitive, are implemented. The paper suggests that performance management, is significant as both a depoliticising policy coordination mechanism and a highly politicised policy implementation practice. The paper invokes a scalar-relational approach which sees the pressure to innovate and compete at lower scales as driven by the political economy of competitiveness at the system scale. The paper reports on research undertaken within the empirical frame of EU meta-governance, showing how performance management is part of lower-scale attempts to adapt to system-scale pressures. It is neoliberalising in both form and content. It concludes by showing that while performance management may be a significant component of neoliberalisation there is scope for engagement and contestation motivated by egalitarian ideals. Critical IPE scholars interested in contesting neoliberalisation should therefore engage with the political economy of management practice as well as policy design.
interventions, including training, employment incentives, direct job creation and subsidised
employment. In addition, one of the most prominent ALMPs is a Public Employment Service (PES1).
The services provided by PES vary across countries but typically involve ‘intermediation’ services
for employers and jobseekers, dissemination of labour market information and they may also play a
role in coordinating other ALMPs, for example by commissioning specific training programmes and
referring jobseekers to them.
ALMPs can be contrasted with ‘passive’ labour market measures which involve the provision of
various forms of welfare payments related to unemployment. Again, these vary from country to
country but might include contribution funded unemployment benefits or redundancy payments and
non-contributory cash transfers. In some countries PES have a role in the administration of these
payments and may be involved in combining active and passive measures; as in the case where they
ensure that passive beneficiaries receive intermediation or demonstrate that they meet ‘conditional-
ities’ by performing job search activities or undertaking training. This latter function is more frequent
where passive measures are more generous and can offset economic incentives to work.
In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), most countries have a PES and many countries invest
in a range of ALMPs, especially training programmes targeted at young people. Many countries have
historically had contributory unemployment benefits but only more recently introduced non-contribu-
tory cash transfer schemes which are typically not closely integrated with PES or AMLPs. Nevertheless,
spending on both passive and active measures in LAC typically lags OECD averages.
There is now a significant body of literature evaluating ALMP and PES effectiveness and a range of
high-quality cross-country studies, systematic review and meta-analyses which summarise this litera-
ture and evidence base. Despite apparently ‘mixed’ results, the consistent message that arises is that
some ALMPs do work where they are well targeted, designed and funded. The empirical evidence
is complex and nuanced but does broadly follow the theory: whether ALMPs work effectively is a mat-
ter of being adequately funded, well-designed, appropriate participant selection and their fit with the
relevant socio-economic context.
2
The evidence also suggests some patterns in the relative effectiveness of different forms of ALMP.
PES intermediation services tend to have small positive short-run impacts consistent with their
low cost and duration. Training often has negative short-run effects because of lock-in during par-
ticipation, but where longer-term measurements are available these often show effects turning
positive (e.g. after a year or more). Again, this is consistent with their more substantive effect on skills
formation. For the LAC region positive impacts include increased employment formality. Other
programme types have more variable results and there are smaller numbers of studies to draw on.
This evidence suggests that the key policy question is not ‘are ALMPs effective?’ but ‘how can ALMPs
be designed to meet the needs of specific groups of participants and how might this be impacted
by context?’. On this second question, there are strong clues in the literature if not definitive answers.
What stands out from this evidence is that the answers tend to follow theory. Well designed and
well-funded programmes are more effective. Programmes that meet jobseeker (including between
different social groups) and employer needs are more effective. This makes specificity in programme
design and participation selection hugely important.
Alignment between ALMPs and their context matters. As a simple example, training programmes
need to meet the current skills needs of employers and recognise the existing skills of participants.
Moreover, ALMPs will work differently in times of growth and surplus employment than they will in
times of recession and surplus labour supply. As such, ALMP implementation should include ongoing
performance management and evaluation in a way that helps policy makers, practitioners and stake-
holders understand and monitor changing programme effectiveness and make iterative programme
design changes as the evidence changes