Description
Private pensions provision in the UK is in crisis, yet it is not the crisis often depicted in political and popular discourses. While population ageing has affected traditional pensions practice, the imperilment of UK pensions is due in fact to the peculiar way policy-makers have responded to wider social and economic change. Pensions are a mechanism for managing failed futures, yet this function is being impeded by the individualization of provision. This book offers a political economy perspective on the development of private pensions, focusing specifically on how policy elites have sought to respond to perceived crises of demographic change, under-saving, and fund deficits, and in doing so have absorbed imperatives to subject individuals to a market-led regime under the influence of neoliberal ideology. This terrain is explored through chapters on the historical and comparative context of UK pensions provision, the demise of collectivist provision, the rise of pensions individualization and the state's role as facilitator and regulator in this regard, and the financial and economic context in which pensions provision operates. By placing the UK system in a comparative context of pensions reform agendas across the world, this book offers an original understanding of the unique temporality and materiality of pensions provision as a set of mechanisms for coping with generational change and forecast failures in capitalist economies. It also presents a nuanced account of the extent to which the state acts to anchor the process of pensions rematerialization and, crucially, concludes by outlining a coherent and radical programme of progressive pensions reform.
About the Author
Craig Berry is Reader in Political Economy and Deputy Director of Future Economies at Manchester Metropolitan University. His previous roles include Deputy Director of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Sheffield, Policy Advisor at HM Treasury, Pensions Policy Officer at the Trades Union Congress, and Head of Policy and Senior Researcher at the International Longevity Centre. He has also taught at Manchester and Warwick universities, and in 2017 served on the Industrial Strategy Commission. His books include The Political Economy of Industrial Strategy in the UK (with Julie Froud and Tom Barker), Developing England's North (with Arianna Giovannini), Austerity Politics and UK Economic Policy, and Globalisation and Ideology in Britain.
Reviews
Original and thorough, Pensions Imperilled provides a myth-busting analysis of pensions provision as a crucial element of British capitalist management, in comparative perspective. Presenting a unique treatment of temporality, and denouncing the inherent contradiction of an intergenerational collective arrangement that is increasingly premised on individualism and (further) financialization, Berry sounds the alarm for a UK pension crisis that has barely begun. A must-read for a multidisciplinary and truly inter-generational understanding of the perennial policy puzzles involving private pensions. * Giselle Datz, Associate Professor of Government and International Affairs, Virginia Tech *
Utterly brilliant if very scary in its implications-not a book to have on your bedside table if you wish to sleep comfortably through the night. Highly original and depressingly persuasive, this is the most detailed and most troubling account we have of the impending pensions crisis. Its warnings need to be heeded. * Colin Hay, Professor of Political Sciences, Sciences Po Paris *
In Pensions Imperilled, Craig Berry masterfully dispels the popular myths around population ageing and financial volatility that have legitimized the United Kingdom's far-reaching pension reforms for decades. Instead, Berry directs our attention to the pivotal role of statecraft-policy-makers' use of state power to create a political outcome consistent with their ideological views-as a catalyst behind the ongoing neoliberalization and financialization of the UK pension system. This book is essential reading for anyone alarmed by the rapidly disappearing promise of secure and adequate pensions for today's workforce. * Natascha van der Zwan, Assistant Professor in Public Administration, Leiden University *
Why does the UK find itself embroiled in a pension crisis? Pensions Imperilled draws on a wealth of research to show that the standard demographic arguments about ageing fall far short. Instead, Berry shows that changes in the UK's political economy, what is commonly referred to as 'financialization', led to policy changes that have made retirement security more precarious and individualized. Pensions Imperilled is a must read that rightly refocuses our attention onto political economy. * Michael A. Mccarthy, Associate Professor of Sociology, Marquette University *
Awards
Winner of Shortlisted, 2023 Mackenzie Book Prize, Political Studies Association.
Book Information
ISBN 9780198782834
Author Craig Berry
Format Hardback
Page Count 352
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 658g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 162mm * 24mm
About the Author
Craig Berry is Reader in Political Economy and Deputy Director of Future Economies at Manchester Metropolitan University. His previous roles include Deputy Director of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Sheffield, Policy Advisor at HM Treasury, Pensions Policy Officer at the Trades Union Congress, and Head of Policy and Senior Researcher at the International Longevity Centre. He has also taught at Manchester and Warwick universities, and in 2017 served on the Industrial Strategy Commission. His books include The Political Economy of Industrial Strategy in the UK (with Julie Froud and Tom Barker), Developing England's North (with Arianna Giovannini), Austerity Politics and UK Economic Policy, and Globalisation and Ideology in Britain.
Reviews
Original and thorough, Pensions Imperilled provides a myth-busting analysis of pensions provision as a crucial element of British capitalist management, in comparative perspective. Presenting a unique treatment of temporality, and denouncing the inherent contradiction of an intergenerational collective arrangement that is increasingly premised on individualism and (further) financialization, Berry sounds the alarm for a UK pension crisis that has barely begun. A must-read for a multidisciplinary and truly inter-generational understanding of the perennial policy puzzles involving private pensions. * Giselle Datz, Associate Professor of Government and International Affairs, Virginia Tech *
Utterly brilliant if very scary in its implications-not a book to have on your bedside table if you wish to sleep comfortably through the night. Highly original and depressingly persuasive, this is the most detailed and most troubling account we have of the impending pensions crisis. Its warnings need to be heeded. * Colin Hay, Professor of Political Sciences, Sciences Po Paris *
In Pensions Imperilled, Craig Berry masterfully dispels the popular myths around population ageing and financial volatility that have legitimized the United Kingdom's far-reaching pension reforms for decades. Instead, Berry directs our attention to the pivotal role of statecraft-policy-makers' use of state power to create a political outcome consistent with their ideological views-as a catalyst behind the ongoing neoliberalization and financialization of the UK pension system. This book is essential reading for anyone alarmed by the rapidly disappearing promise of secure and adequate pensions for today's workforce. * Natascha van der Zwan, Assistant Professor in Public Administration, Leiden University *
Why does the UK find itself embroiled in a pension crisis? Pensions Imperilled draws on a wealth of research to show that the standard demographic arguments about ageing fall far short. Instead, Berry shows that changes in the UK's political economy, what is commonly referred to as 'financialization', led to policy changes that have made retirement security more precarious and individualized. Pensions Imperilled is a must read that rightly refocuses our attention onto political economy. * Michael A. Mccarthy, Associate Professor of Sociology, Marquette University *
Awards
Winner of Shortlisted, 2023 Mackenzie Book Prize, Political Studies Association.
Book Information
ISBN 9780198782834
Author Craig Berry
Format Hardback
Page Count 352
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 658g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 162mm * 24mm
