This report looks at how young professionals interviewed in Peckham in 2012 conceptualise the post-recession economy in the context of their personal household and the local borough. It takes a grounded theory approach to the secondary analysis of nine transcripts drawn from the study: ‘The Middle Classes and the City: social mix or just ‘people like us? A comparison of Paris and London’ (Baqué et al 2015). Four years on from the global financial crash and two years into coalition government austerity measures, many view recession in terms of their pre-existing financial struggle to live in London. Yet despite this the majority are ‘insulated’ from day-to-day financial constraints, and use a range of informal strategies to maximise their resources in the borough. Participants do not conjecture significant change to their personal finances -positive or negative- and live in a “constant present”. When considering the local impact of recession, participants attach deviance to certain forms of consumerism and thereby reflect the public austerity discourse. Rye Lane is imagined as an uncompetitive, ‘wasteful’ market – where supply outweighs demand. While Dulwich – a place where demand overreaches supply – becomes symbolic of the high consumption unsustainable financial market prior to the crash. Participants emphasise their behaviours in contrast, as: the practice of saving, supporting businesses which deliver consumer choice and use of self-sufficient social systems over public resources. Participant’s attitudes to the economic and civil society are appreciated through the lens of Foucault’s (1977) theory of ‘governmentality’. This report contributes to the exploration of recession in the sociological field since 2010 which has focused on vulnerable groups and gender readings.

Introduction

The years which followed the global financial crash have been marked by a succession of fiscal policies by the UK government aimed at deficit reduction. Speaking at a Conservative party conference in 2009 the then Prime Minister David Cameron stated “the age of irresponsibility is giving way to the age of austerity” and pledged to kerb perceived excessive government spending. The five-year austerity programme began in 2010 under a new coalition government – two years before the recording of the Peckham interviews as part of the ‘Middle Classes in the City’ study.

Alongside this the coalition government outlined a programme of policies