Europeanisation

and the Variegated

Socio-Political Economies of Austerity
Capitalism:
Hungary and Croatia

Croatian Sociological Association Conference, Zagreb 14 June 2014

What are the implications of understanding the

trope of Europeanisation not as linear but as
a complex, dynamic and troubled translation
process?
What kinds of post-communist welfare
assemblages are emerging in the context of
variegated forms of austerity capitalism in
the European Union?
How have the complex articulations of
authoritarian populism, neo-liberalism, and
ethnicised nationalism reconstructed
welfare settlements in Hungary and Croatia?
What are the implications of the approach
presented for a move beyond the realist
modernism of much Europeanisation and

Focus on institutions/ governance/ adaptation

linear consequentialist logic unt to t a fragile,
uid and unstable landscape
Focus on neo-colonial/ neo-liberal
governmentality rests on limited cases and a
unitary, essentialist view of the EU
Europeanisation as contested reframing,
redomaining and recoupling scripts,
performances and ctions
Unstable set of social policy meanings,
discourses, techniques always subject to
multiple translations and narrative turbulences

Crisis as a signier with variegated eects framing

economic-political-social assemblages in diverse
conjunctures vectors and circuits of translocal
regulatory practices
EU IMF meta-critical partnerships and new forms of
disciplinarity Excessive Decit Procedure as the
elsewhere of EU social policy
OMC / social investment package / youth guarantee as a
techno-managerial order
Co-evolution of reform eorts across scales face the
paradox of reform in the semi-periphery/semi-other
Reworking of family-work-nation discourses active
inclusion and responsibilising citizens dierent eects
in dierent places ... a calibration of connections and a
documentation of diferences

Variegated austerity capitalism translates as authoritarian

neoliberalism, with both radical authoritarian nationalism and
populism as well as widespread economic neoliberalisation. In
response, a distinct welfare patchwork emerges:
-debt-state, excessive debt, failures of scal consolidations
since 2004, continued political backlash against the EUs decit
agenda, rst yes, later no to IMF
-pension-state, radical renationalisation of second and third
pillar, pension state rescues the debt state temporarily at least,
Austerity comes with particular forms of welfare
governmentality: punitive workfare, racialisation of education,
cuts in benets, criminalisation of poverty, erosion of health care
services, clientelism in institutional care, recalibrating gender
policies
Dual welfare emerges: state-driven one for privileged groups,
and market led ones for the poor, as a result deep social
polarisation, rise in poverty and social inequalities, mass
outmigration

Variegated austerity capitalism translates as neo-liberal technocratic

clientelism, with extent of break from 1990s radical authoritarian
nationalism and populism overstated. Neoliberalisation with a technocratic
face, in context of clientelistic relations, creates a distinct welfare
patchwork:
- crisis-state as debt-state, deep recession, excessive debt, scal
austerity by stealth, acceptance of EUs decit agenda, but no to IMF
-ethnicised/diaspora-state, rights to continguous Croatian diaspora in
B-H, variegated citizenship rights and localised ethnicised radicalism
- commodied welfare austerity, outsourcing, PPPs in health and
education, out-of-pocket payments, surveillance of undeserving
welfare recipients
- variegated political/welfare clientelisms, deserving veterans,
veterans (and true Croatian) families, and war disabled
-techno-managerialism, JIM/Europe 2020 process social inclusion
lite, consultant-led health reform, etc.
- welfare parallelism maintained: state-, NGO- and emerging private-
sectors rarely intersect, new poverty, future outmigration

 Conjunctures not epochs

Flows not levels
Politics of space, scale and time

Bending and blending / hunter-gathering

research methods