Living with Hard Times

This fascinating study serves as a useful reminder that the Great Recession adversely affected a great many citizens and set in motion, or reinforced, political processes that are still ongoing. The authors astutely balance attention to cross-national differences with attention to class differences in citizens' experiences of and responses to the crisis. They convincingly demonstrate that pocketbook and sociotropic concerns condition each other. Most importantly, Giugni and Grasso show us that individuals' evaluations of government responses to the Great Recession are fundamental for understanding political attitudes and behavior in the mid-2010s. -- Jonas Pontusson, University of Geneva

This book is a comprehensive account of how the Great Recession was lived by Europeans. It shows the impact of the crisis on citizens' political attitudes and engagement going well beyond depicting how citizens perceived and coped with economic hardship. Built on a wealth of richly contextualized survey data, a must read for anyone interested in contemporary European politics. -- Eva Anduiza, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

The Great Recession has shaken up European societies. This book is a pioneering account of the affectedness of different social groups as well as forms of resilience, resistance and activism. It shows with empirical rigor that the crisis has set societies under stress and put constrains on people's life-chance, but also opened up new opportunities for some parts of society. -- Steffen Mau, Humboldt-University Berlin

Marco Giugni is a Professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations and Director of the Institute of Social and Political Research (RESOP) at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. His research interests include social movements and collective action, immigration and ethnic relations, unemployment and social exclusion.