British Society and its Three Crises

Ebook available to libraries exclusively as part of the JSTOR Path to Open initiative.

This study demonstrates that Britain was afflicted by continual crises from the severe economic, social and political problems of the 1970s to the onset of Brexit in 2016. The term crisis is used to refer to intense tensions, divisions, conflicts and instability. Particular focus rests upon three combined crises, affecting most or all parts of the social system. These were the decline of managed capitalism and the development of increasingly dominant neo-liberal globalisation from the 1970s onwards; the financial crash and its systemic effects from 2007 to 2009; and the ‘present crisis’ dating from the 2010 politics of austerity.

The study is based on a wide range and depth of primary and secondary sources. In terms of approach, it maintains that to understand the selected crises, it is important to adopt a combined historical, empirical and theoretical approach. For example, it relies heavily upon the historicised notions of crisis and hegemony developed by the Italian political philosopher, Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937). It provides a more complete and innovative account than found in many other comparable studies. Finally, a companion volume, A Nation in Crisis: Division Conflict and Capitalism in the United Kingdom (2023), explores the intensification of the present ‘permacrisis’ crisis from 2017 onwards.