"Atmosphere is also key within literature on the psychosocial dynamics of welfare, which are situated within, and yet move beyond, focus on the discursive production of welfare subjectivities to better grasp the affective and embodied experiences of welfare (Stenner et al., 2008) – how welfare practices, and indeed austerity, come to be inscribed on bodies. This literature places ‘emotional life at the heart of social policy and welfare practice whilst retaining a critical perspective on issues of power’ (Frost and Hoggett, 2008: 438). There are links here to work within cultural studies on economies and politics of affect (Berlant, 2007; Puar, 2011), austerity as atmosphere (Hitchen, 2016) and questions around how capitalism feels (Cvetkovitch, 2012). Particularly relevant is Berlant’s ‘slow death’ as an analytical strategy to describe ‘the physical wearing out of a population and the deterioration of people’ (2007: 754) under contemporary global/national regimes of capitalist subordination, and the ‘destruction of bodies by capitalism in spaces of production and in the rest of life’ (2007: 764). Puar (2011) draws upon Berlant’s work to ask (in reference to deaths categorised as ‘gay youth suicides’) ‘what kinds of “slow deaths” have been ongoing that a suicide might represent an escape from?’ (2011: 152). Povinelli (2011) in examining modes of making (Mills 307) and letting die in late liberalism takes this further by asking who can be seen as accountable for such slow deaths (Povinelli, 2011: 134), and in relation to this article, for austerity suicides?''

Mills