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36 Critical Soc. Pol'y 3 (2016)

handle is hein.journals/critsplcy36 and id is 1 raw text is: Article Policies and discourses of poverty during a time of recession and austerity CHRISTINA PANTAZIS University of Bristol, England Abstract This article introduces this themed issue which challenges government policies and discourses using evidence from the UK 2012 Poverty and Social Exclusion Study. Policies and discourses prioritising the role of individual deficiencies and highlighting the structural problems of the welfare state in poverty causation are nothing new. However, they re- emerged vigorously in the UK following the 2007-8 global financial crisis and ensuing economic recession. The articles forming this themed issue seek to challenge in different ways this prevailing discourse. This intro- ductory article draws upon Bacchi's 'what is the problem represented to be' ('WPR') approach to examine the ways in which poverty was prob- lematised by the Conservative- Liberal Democrat Coalition government (2010-15). It argues that this problematisation silenced structural pro- cesses associated with the government's commitment to neo-liberalism, resulting in devastating, socially harmful consequences. Key words poverty, recession austerity, social harm Corresponding author: Christina Pantazis, School for Policy Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Law, University of Bristol, 8 Priory Road, Bristol, BS8 1TZ, England. Email: c.pantazis@bristol.ac.uk Critical Social Policy 2016, Vol. 36(1): 3-20 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0261018315620377 csp.sagepub.com OSAGE