Emotions, affect and social policy: austerity and Children’s Centers in the UK

This paper considers the ‘affective turn’ within social sciences, alongside shift to a more emotional public and political sphere, implications of these shifts for study policy. A context austerity cuts reforms welfare services contributes heightened unstable emotions surrounding services. case Sure Start Children’s Centers in UK is presented, two areas where centers were threatened with closure. Interview ethnographic material both staff service users presented show how became politicized this context. Both articulated values new ways, drawing on intimate registers experience. Overall, shows context, can be understood as place-based, relational politicized, potentially producing different visions