Socio-economic practices of households coping with hardship

Top-down responses to major shocks have been of major interest to social scientists and they contributed to our understanding of restructuring, transformation and development. Research into socio-economic practices of families in times of crises, on the other hand, can help us to develop bottom-up approaches of resilience that are sensitised for the impacts of macro policies on households. This chapter examines the socio-economic practices of households in the context of the 2008 crisis and the Great Recession in Europe. The framework of analysis focuses on assets and resources, income generation and cost management. The case study findings show that despite some variation, efforts for containing cost of living has been the most prominent household response across Europe. Welfare benefits stand out as the most relevant baseline for social resilience against unpredicted shocks such as the 2008 crisis as well as the ordinary ups and downs related to unemployment.