expectations and aspirations. A gap emerges in the literature in terms of exploration of how recession is comparatively coped with between the genders.

A number of researchers have returned to previous studies in view of recession. Atkinson’s study (2013) returns to his 2010–11- intensive qualitative work with 29 families in Bristol. His findings undermine the class-leveling, gendered argument made by O’Loughlin et al’s study. Instead he finds how individuals understanding of recession is determined by a combination of class and occupational resources which render the future as – controllable, uncontrollable, precarious, or reasonably controllable. Leicht and Fitzgerald (2014) expanded their 2007 study of over-55 Americans Post-Industrial Peasants in light of the crash. They find that at a time of increased low income and job security for this group, the ‘work until I die’ ethos rises because of the unaffordability of retirement. In this they see neoliberal/neoconservative thinking has effectively ‘defined old age out of existence’ under the pretence of free market choice.

Sociologists have examined recession from a migration angle, where studies have revealed the hidden reasons behind movement (Cairns 2013; Spitzer and Piper 2014; Bygnes 2017). Cairns (2013) conducted a mixed method study of 400 undergraduates in Belfast following the crash to find a dichotomy between the high rate of the intention to migrate and low rate of substantive plans made to leave. He identifies the blocker in the dearth of the ‘‘right’ mobility enabling habitus’ to access mobility. Bygnes (2017) qualitative study by maps the highly skilled people, often already employed individuals who left Spain for Norway after 2008. These individuals distance themselves from motivations related to the crisis to retain status and avoid stigma. The concept of ‘anomie’ is used by Bygnes to understand individual motivations in relation to the national, in contrast to Cairns application of Bourdieusian mobility related to the familial. Spitzer and Piper’s (2014) study looks at the disempowered migration of female Filipino migrants returning home, id