Social Resilience in the Neo-Liberal Era

Abstract

Social Resilience in Neoliberal Era Peter A. Hall, Michelle Lamont, ed.s Cambridge University Press, 2013As readers open this book, their first question is almost certainly going to be, is 'neoliberalism'? It is a term that is almost never used in American political discussion and, to extent has been used by anyone, has had quite a few meanings. The Wikipedia entry on says the meaning of neoliberalism has changed over time and come to mean different things to different groups. As a result, is very hard to define. The entry adds that it has largely become a term of condemnation employed by leftist critics of liberalizing economic tendencies. And now suggests a fundamentalism closer to laissez-faire principles.... In this review, we will want to focus on what contributors to this compendium of essays take to mean. Before we examine meaning they assign to it, however, will help clarify things if we mention that means something very different in context of foreign policy and international relations than does when, as here, is speaking of economics. The two are unrelated.The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) has for this volume brought together 21 contributors under editorship of two Harvard professors for a cultural-sociology compendium. They come from a number of universities, including several in United States but with a plurality from Canada. The Institute has been working on a Building Strong theme, which includes a Successful Societies Program. Judging from similarities of concept and semantic that run through Introduction and twelve essays, group's professors have a lot in common, being in effect an encapsulated intellectual community of like thinkers. It is worth pointing this out because their unanimity may give a misleading impression that their use of is in general circulation, understood by all. It is not.In fact, there may not be a commonly accepted term for what they are describing, even though is something that looms large in today's world. By neoliberal thought they mean assortment of market- idealizing concepts, such as rational expectations and efficient markets theory, that became so dominant within economics profession in decades immediately before economic unraveling in 2007-8. Since then, there have been several books by supporters of a economy decrying what they see as deformation of capitalism, so intellectual climate is no longer nearly so much under sway of that pre-crisis consensus. We should add that, in any case, consensus was never unanimously held.Thought, of course, is not all there is to it. The world has changed in real terms. The result has been a globalized economy featuring giant multinational corporations, a world awash with an ocean of finance, global labor arbitrage causing an undercutting of labor in advanced economies, free trade policies (although with more exceptions than free traders like to admit), vastly improved communications and transportation, non-labor-intensive technology and robotics, cybernetic revolution, scientific advances in countless areas -- and much more. All of this has brought an era of heightened capitalism, but one that differs significantly from economics of past. It has its enthusiastic supporters, but there is reason to speak, as so many now do, of crony capitalism or corrupted capitalism. These disparaging references come from across ideological spectrum, not just from left. The more thoughtful commentators among those who have championed the free market in past see a veritable crisis in growing inequality, decline of middle class, hollowing-out of industry as is off-shored, rise of long-term unemployment and part-employment, and remarkable ethical collapse inherent in a narrowly self-regarding psychology. …