Study title

Data collection consists of 40 semi-structured in-depth interviews (10 in the first stage and 30 in the second) and 2 focus groups. The research presented here is a case study of the sociopolitical transformations of Barcelona in the years of the economic crisis that began in 2008, with a special emphasis on the period 2011-2017. The study was developed in two stages in order to grasp the evolution of an object of study that is very recent and that has gone through importance breaking points over the last years: a first exploratory stage between October and November 2015 and a second stage between July and December 2016. Austerity governance, defined as a sustained agenda for reducing public spending, poses new challenges for the organisation of relationships between government, business and citizens in many parts of the world. This project compares how these challenges are addressed in eight countries: Australia, Canada, France, Greece, Ireland, Spain, the UK and the USA. Governments have long sought effective ways of engaging citizen activists and business leaders in decision making, through many formal and informal mechanisms - what we term collaborative governance. The focus of our research is how collaboration contributes to the governance of austerity. Governments and public service leaders argue that collaboration with businesses, voluntary organisations and active citizens is essential for addressing the many challenges posed by austerity. The challenges include transforming public services to cope with cuts, changing citizen expectations and managing demand for services and enhancing the legitimacy of difficult policy decisions by involving people outside government in making them. But at the same time, collaboration can be exclusionary. For example, if there are high levels of protest, governmental and business elites may collaborate in ways that marginalise ordinary citizens to push through unpopular policies. Our challenge is to explore different...