Joanna Richardson is a Principal Lecturer in the Centre for Comparative Housing Research at De Montfort University, Leicester. In addition to her teaching and programme leadership, she has research interests in the impact of the financial crisis on vulnerable groups, Gypsies and Travellers, and housing and the customer. She has written and edited several books including The Gypsy Debate: Can Discourse Control? (2006), Providing Gypsy and Travellers Sites: Contentious Spaces (JRF, 2007), and Housing and the Customer (2010).

"Is there an alternative to our children having to learn Mandarin, and becoming losers in a cut-throat global market? Although it is often claimed this is inevitable, this book presents some other options and perspectives." Danny Dorling, University of Sheffield

• Foreword: The financial crisis and the public sector ~ Ken Livingstone; Introduction and current context of the recession and the public ~ Jo Richardson and Colin Copus; The global context of the crisis: from Bretton Woods to market fundamentalism ~ George Lambie; European effects on the UK crisis: solutions for a recovery ~ Stuart Holland; Local political context of the recession ~ Steve Leach and Lawrence Pratchett; Financial methods of intervention ~ Fred Mear; Efficiencies in public sector delivery ~ John Seddon; Choice, personalisation and empowerment in a recession? ~ Tim Brown and Nicola Yates; Protecting the community from the effects of the financial crisis ~ Jo Richardson; Governmentality: who provides 'public' services and does it matter? ~ Vivien Lowndes and Helen Sullivan; Conclusions and next steps ~ Jo Richardson.