Minority Women and Austerity: Survival and Resistance in France and Britain

As austerity measures continue throughout Europe, its effects are felt differently by different groups. This book looks at how minority women activists in France and Britain have coped with austerity. Minority women are often portrayed as passive victims. However, ‘Minority Women and Austerity’ demonstrates how they use their race, class, gender and legal status as a resource for collective action in the face of the neoliberal colonisation of non-governmental organisations, the failures of left-wing solidarity and the patronising initiatives of policymakers. Using in-depth case studies, this book explores the changing relations between the state, the market and civil society which create opportunities and dilemmas for minority women activists. Through an intersectional ‘politics of survival’ these women seek to subvert the dominant narratives of ‘crisis’ and ‘activism’.

Leah Bassel  is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Leicester.  Her research interests include the political sociology of gender, migration, race and citizenship and she is author of Refugee Women: Beyond Gender versus Culture (Routledge, 2012); The Politics of Listening: Possibilities and Challenges for Democratic Life (Palgrave, 2017), and Minority Women and Austerity: Survival and Resistance in France and Britain, co-authored with Akwugo Emejulu (Policy Press, 2017). She led an Economic and Social Research Council-funded project exploring migrants' experiences of the UK citizenship test process and co-led a British Academy-funded project onminority women’s activism under austerity with Akwugo Emejulu. She is Assistant Editor of the journal Citizenship Studies.  Leah had the opportunity to do emergency outreach work in Paris before pursuing an academic career, where she provided humanitarian assistance to asylum seekers and created a circus camp project for refugee youth.

Akwugo Emejulu is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick. Her research interests include investigating racial and gender inequalities in Europe and the United States and exploring women of colour's grassroots activism for social justice. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies, Politics & Gender, Race & Class, Soundings and the European Journal of Women's Studies. Her co-authored book, Minority Women and Austerity: Survival and Resistance in France and Britain, was published in July 2017 by Policy Press. Her new project, ‘The Politics of Catastrophe,’ explores women of colour’s organising against austerity, against the far right and for migrants’ rights in Britain, the Netherlands and the United States.