Social disinvestment and vulnerable groups in Europe in the aftermath of the financial crisis: evidence from 13 local case studies

The impact of social disinvestment on vulnerable groups during the crisis in Europe (abstract for stream 25) Ides Nicaise et al. Topic: Re-InVEST is an ongoing Horizon 2020 research project, in which academic researchers, civil society organisations and vulnerable people at grassroots level from 12 European countries jointly reflect on the foundations of a social investment strategy for a more inclusive Europe. In the first stage of the research, 13 local groups (NEETs, mental health care users, migrants, disabled people, homeless people, families at risk of eviction) analysed how ‘the crisis’ affected their capabilities and human rights, as well as their relations with society at large. The methodology is based on a co-construction approach. Three parties with different types of knowledge and different ‘lenses’ (academics, NGO workers and vulnerable people) jointly analyse social realities with the aim of producing a more valid and ‘shared’ scientific diagnosis of the research object. Despite small local differences, all local teams shared some common principles such as: starting with a trust-building phase, positive discrimination in the time and support allocated to vulnerable participants, intercultural mediation, use of non-verbal (along with verbal) data collection methods, and linking research to transformative action at local level so as to ensure that the project has tangible results for vulnerable participants and empowers them. The synthesis will be completed by end of August, but preliminary findings suggest the following: • The economic impact of the crisis was obviously very different across Europe, with countries such as Austria and Switzerland experiencing a far lower impact than Portugal, Latvia or Romania in terms of unemployment, poverty and austerity measures. • Nevertheless, vulnerable groups in all study countries experienced serious damage through various mechanisms: labour market effects (full-time or part-time unemployment, wage decreases, forced migration, precarious and unprotected work and weaker unemployment protection), housing market effects (evictions, homelessness, increased rents), financial exclusion (over-indebtedness, no access to credit) and government measures (tax increases, ‘social disinvestment’ through increased prices or cutbacks in public services, austerity measures in social protection). • These mechanisms sometimes affected the basic rights and capabilities of vulnerable groups in quite dramatic ways (school dropout, health damage, disrupted family ties, depression, despair). Above all, our vulnerable research partners experienced severe psycho-social effects, due to a ‘social climate change’ in their relationships with the rest of society. • The latter effects reach beyond the individual level and affect the collective agency of local communities, civil society organisations, cities and public services. Overall, vulnerable people experience a generalised increase in individualism, social distrust and stigma, and a weakening of social rights as public services are getting overburdened and adopt more controlling and punitive ways of treating their clients. • All in all, the causal relationships between the economic crisis and shifts affecting vulnerable people are not very clear-cut. In some countries, shifts in the social climate and austerity measures rather preceded the economic crisis. And indeed, according to some analyses, the economic crisis can be seen as endogenous, as a consequence of the loss of solidarity and trust.status: publishe