Introduction to the themed section: Children of the recession - the social consequences of an economic downturn

More than 50 years ago C. Wright Mills described sociology, the archetypical social science, as the study of where history meets biography (1959: 4-7). Most of us have heard our parents or grandparents talk about the 'Great Depression'. It is easy for us to see how they are 'children of the Depression', how this historical event shaped their biographies. Having lived through the Great Depression (and war-time rationing) explains, amongst other things, why they save brown paper and string, why they dislike people leaving food on their plate, why they hope their sons and daughters get 'a nice, steady job in a bank', why they prefer to own brick homes rather have cash savings, and so on. In this context, it is surprising that so little research has been devoted to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) - an event often described as the 'worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s'.