Contemporary Neoliberal Societies Research Articles

Fratelli tutti e a superação do individualismo pela educação

Fratelli Tutti, an encyclical written by Pope Francis, addresses the themes of fraternity and social friendship, emphasizing the need to recognize, to value and to love all people, regardless of the physical proximity or the place where they were born or live. Individualism, however, is approached as one of the main challenges of contemporary neoliberal society. By reflecting on this issue and its implications for the common good, this article seeks to situate education as a form of overcoming selfish indifference. Based on Charlot (2020), Laval and Vergne (2023) and Benincá (2010), the dialogical education is defended as an essential element for promoting a culture of encounter and a sense of brotherhood.

Dressing up the place: Urban lifestyle mobilities and the production of “fashionable” tourism destinations in rural Japan

The past three decades of neoliberal structural reforms in Japan has established tourism policy favoring privatization, deregulation, and flexible mobility of capital to encourage decentralized markets. Within this system, attracting skilled urban migrants to rural regions has emerged as a central component of planning and development. Drawing on Kawamura's theory of fashion-ology, this study details the process of how rural tourism destinations are produced and (re)fashioned by urban-to-rural lifestyle migrants who bring new practices, aesthetics, and meanings to place. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2021/2022 in the rural coastal town of Aoshima, we outline the co-constitutive dynamic between “star migrants”, industry “gatekeepers”, and “consumers as producers” in the production and consumption of “fashionable” rural destinations. The article contributes to literature on how rural tourism destinations are governed in contemporary neoliberal societies and provides insights into the unequal urban-to-rural power relations that continue to define Japan's regional revitalization programs.

Making Sense of (Post)Neoliberalism

The many contradictory interpretations of neoliberalism raise doubts about the value of this concept. This article discusses the literature on neoliberalism for identifying a “minimum common core” that warrants preserving this concept. I argue that neoliberalism entails an ideology and a political practice that aim to subordinate the state and all social domains to the market—to its logic and to the economic powers within it—thereby undermining democracy. This conceptualization emerges as a “common lowest denominator” among many otherwise incompatible scholarly definitions of neoliberalism, reflects central neoliberal ideas (despite their own inconsistencies), and illuminates crucial features of contemporary neoliberal society. I discuss the implications of this interpretation for established democracies and for those countries that experienced democratization processes during the neoliberal era, for the debates on postneoliberalism, and for the political identity of the Left.

Art of Dystopia: Why Edward Hopper Paintings Haunt the Present Moment

ABSTRACT The concept of “boring dystopia,” a term coined by Mark Fisher, describes the banal and mildly coercive signs that are prevalent in contemporary neoliberal society. It is characterized by a pervasive sense of boredom, banality, and total alienation, which arises from the depletion of social connections caused by free-market fundamentalism and consumer culture. For the author, Edward Hopper’s paintings embody this sense of dystopia, as they depict deserted cityscapes and isolated figures, creating a vision of a society where human connection and interaction have broken down. The COVID-19 pandemic response has further highlighted the erosion of empathy and compassion under neoliberal capitalism, making Fisher’s call for collective action and the creation of new forms of community and solidarity even more urgent. Edward Hopper’s haunting art reminds us that we are already living in a dystopia, and that it is crucial to confront this dystopian reality and imagine new possibilities for the future.

We Need to Talk about Class

Abstract Class differences have historically received limited attention in museum theory and practice, and scholarly publications on issues of class and heritage are still scarce. COVID-19 has shone a particularly harsh light on class divisions. At the height of the pandemic, working-class laborers (such as supermarket cashiers, social care workers, truck and delivery drivers) were asked to shoulder high levels of health risks, exposing entrenched socioeconomic inequities. In this article, we build upon a small-scale research and collecting project, Inequalities, Class, and the Pandemic, carried out in 2021 by the London Museum (formerly known as the Museum of London) and King's College London, to discuss how museums can meaningfully engage with working-class lived experiences in our contemporary neo-liberal societies. We begin by analyzing whether and how museums have addressed working-class issues and (hi)stories. We then draw on the voices and experiences of our research participants to examine the ongoing structural inequalities experienced by working-class Londoners. Building on our empirical research, we argue for museums to play an active role in reclaiming the centrality of class in public culture, particularly addressing the contemporary lived experiences of working-class people.

Turbulent academic journey of female academics: a meta-synthesis

ABSTRACT Globally, only a small percentage of women hold full-time tenured faculty or leadership positions, and the attrition rate remains high. The reasons for the gender disparity were mostly presented quantitatively with little consideration in qualitative reviews. We seek to consolidate the qualitative evidence examining female academics’ experiences. Six electronic databases were searched from the inception date until October 2021. The included studies were assessed for quality using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool. The meta-synthesis was performed according to Sandelowski and Barroso’s guidelines. Fifty-nine articles were retrieved to identify three main themes: (1) Conflict between career and gender expectations in contemporary neoliberal society, (2) Barriers for females in academia, and (3) Effective strategies that kept female academics going. Our findings highlighted that women from different academic positions and fields often faced overlapping career challenges. Women frequently occupied temporary and contract-based positions and faced gender-biased challenges in promotions, mentoring, and networking opportunities. Current policies were limited to the needs of academic women, especially in work-life integration. With the coronavirus disease widening the gender gap in academia, change is timely to re-examine cultures and policies towards workplace discrimination.

Calorie accounting: The introduction of mandatory calorie labelling on menus in the UK food sector

Obesity has become a topic of public discourse in Britain with claims that it is now one of the major causes of ill health and premature death. In an effort to tackle this obesity ‘crisis’, the UK government has introduced mandatory calorie labelling on menus. This legislation requires that the number of calories associated with a meal option, together with the recommended calorie consumption per day, be displayed on menus. Such ‘calorie accounting’ seeks to prompt the consumer to make menu choices consistent with public health ambitions and to encourage food establishments to reformulate lower calorie menu offerings. Drawing on the concepts of technologies of government (Miller & Rose, 1990; Rose & Miller, 1992) and biopedagogy (Harewood, 2009; Wright, 2009), this paper suggests that calorie accounting operates as a technology of biopedagogy which seeks to discipline and govern the body in contemporary neoliberal society. The paper also contributes to recent accounting scholarship on counter-conduct (Foucault, 2007) by highlighting how calorie accounting produces a form of counter-conduct that coexists with conformity to governmental goals. The paper draws upon three primary data sources: a documentary analysis of 44 policy documents on obesity and calorie reduction, an analysis of 112 responses to a public consultation exercise on calorie labelling, and 20 interviews with relevant actors.

Adversarial Democracy and the Flattening of Choice: A Marcusian Analysis of Sen’s Capability Theory’s Reliance Upon Universal Democracy as a Means for Overcoming Inequality

Abstract This article critically examines the competitive, adversarial nature of the Western neoliberal style of democracy. Specifically, this article focuses on Amartya Sen’s notion of a “universal democracy” as a means of addressing socio-economic inequalities through Sen’s capability approach. Sen’s capability theory has become an acclaimed and widely used theory to evaluate and understand development and inequalities. However, we employ a distinctive critique by engaging Amartya Sen through Herbert Marcuse’s analysis of one dimensionality and the adversarial nature of Western democracy. We further highlight how contemporary neoliberal society employ a particular, adversarial form of public participation. Through this, we underline the various neoliberal problemata, such as Western idealism, political passivity, and a “flattening of choice,” within contemporary democracies and locate how their competitive, winner-take-all nature has become essential to contemporary, Western democratic models. Consequently, we argue that democracy, as a functional concept and form of public engagement, should be fundamentally re-examined in order to address inequalities.

Re-imagining care in comics: an interview with Susan MacLeod, Simon Grennan, Ernesto Priego and Peter Wilkins

ABSTRACT As an existential practice, predicated on human interdependencies and labour, care attains remarkable significance in sustaining the life of the ill/disabled and is an indelible part of families and healthcare. Families, medicine, and institutional caring centres (such as old age homes, hospices among others) justify their commitment to care through emotional and practical/ technical approaches towards illness/disability. COVID-19 pandemic has just made human interdependency and significance of care exceptionally visible through laying bare the inevitable physical and social vulnerabilities. However, in the contemporary neoliberal society that favour autonomy and efficiency, care is overlooked, undermined, undervalued, and often linked with vulnerability and precarity. Graphic caregiving memoirs drawn by caregivers themselves are ideal sites for re-imagining, validating, depicting and reconceptualising experiences of care. In this email interview graphic artists Susan MacLeod, Simon Grennan, Ernesto Priego and Peter Wilkins reflect on care, the wide range of issues concerning its practice and suggest an alternative perspective towards caregiving. In Part A titled Of Comics and Care the authors respond to generic questions about their interest in comics, works, life, among others. In Part B titled What was I expecting? Compassion? Validation? The authors respond to questions related to their respective graphic narratives.

Elite Communities and Polarization in Neoliberal Society: Consecration in Australia’s and Sweden’s Wealthy Neighbourhoods

‘Elite communities’ are the areas where the wealthy, and even ‘superrich’, live, socialize and raise their children as future economic and financial elites; they are the places where a few lead socially and economically privileged lives. Earlier studies have concentrated on the inner dynamics of these settings, focusing on the way residents are constructed and socialized as elites through their social, communicative and aesthetic abilities that are perceived as exemplary in contemporary neoliberal society. In this paper, we broaden the perspective, by exploring how these areas contribute to polarization, that is, how they generate distinctions based on money, morals and manners that are peculiar to neoliberalism’s idealization of ‘entrepreneurship’, ‘self-management’, ‘leadership’ and the pursuit of an ‘active lifestyle’. Our data come from two major ethnographic studies: one conducted between 2010 and 2015 of Sweden’s wealthiest community, Djursholm, that is populated by the country’s business and financial elites; the other conducted between 2016 and 2019 of three of Australia’s most prestigious and economically privileged suburbs, Toorak (Melbourne), Mosman (Sydney) and Cottesloe (Perth).

Exotic Universalism & The New Petite Bourgeoisie: An Analysis of Yoga Marketing on Instagram

This paper works towards an understanding of how modern postural yoga is promoted in new media and the role of class therein. The paper analyzes the content of four yoga Instagram profiles to discern how the contemporary postural practice is marketed on social media. In doing so, it demonstrates how yoga practitioners and organizations position their practice as both exotic and universal. This twofold movement establishes their product (yoga classes and studios) as unique yet accessible in the marketplace of spirituality and fitness. While these two processes of exoticisation and universalisation seem contradictory, this paper argues that this dissonance is emblematic of the values of the new petite bourgeoisie, a socio-economic class which serves as the main source of cultural capital in contemporary neoliberal societies.

Transnational Network and Information Flow in African Refugees and Undocumented Migrants’ International Migration Process

This paper analyses the role of information flow under transnational (social) networks to understand African refugees and undocumented migrants’ migration to Austria. Existing research pointed to the international refugee crisis with industrialised countries targeted border governance that has prompted the emergence of the transnational (social) network, which builds (kinship-based) connectivity and interchangeable acquaintances between migrants in host and country of origin to influence and facilitate migrants’ pre and post mobility process. However, the network often faces weak ties with exploitation and subjugation to human trafficking. Based on twenty qualitative problem-centred face-face interviews, data are collected and analysed with content analysis technique to fill in the gap. The findings indicate that pre-mobility guidance, directive, and legislative decoder regulatory tools influence transnational networks with a lack of well-managed network that may impair pre and post-mobility processes to shape African refugees and undocumented migrant international migratory pathways in an information flow setting. This study demonstrated actor-based network-driven advocacy governance. The outcome points to the strategic mobilization of collective information to resource vulnerable people and refugees or undocumented migrants to meet their needs. This is relevant to collective action in contemporary neoliberal society targeting freedom and movements that may not only constrain ethnic minority group mobility, but the universal human rights principles, public policy learning process, informal institution collaborative actions, and democratic values in times of crisis-related super-diversity societies.

«Danger: Security»! Securitization Theory and the Paris School of International Security Studies

Why does security require to be handled carefully? Can there be too much security? The scholars of the Copenhagen School: O. Wæver and B. Buzan, tackled these questions using the theory of securitization and studying security as a form of social practice. The idea that security should not always be regarded as an absolute good in international politics and threats should not always be objectified is firmly rooted in the constructivist approaches to studying international security. A continuation of these discussions may be found in the theoretical approaches that have been developed for almost fifteen years by the so-called Paris School of international security studies. Unfortunately, one has to admit that although Russian scholars are familiar with these theoretical approaches in general, the existing reviews are still largely superficial. In order to fill this gap, I have attempted to overview and assess the intellectual heritage of the Paris School comprehensively and holistically, turning to the original works of the leading figures within the school: D. Bigo and J. Huysmans. This article continues the series of studies, entirely devoted to the phenomenon of securitization: from the early drafts of the theory towards the modern theoretical concepts.Some of the notions are introduced into the Russian academic use: “domains of insecurity,” “exceptional securitizing,”“diffuse securitizing.”The article focuses on analyzing the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the Paris School approach in general and the theory of (in)securitization in particular. It gives a detailed review of the authors’ ideas about the “security-insecurity” dialectical nexus and securitization as a political technology.The final part summarizes the key points and provisions of the Paris School approach in light of its strengths and flaws. I conclude that the Paris School scholars formulated a new theoretical framework of securitization, which is different from the original version of the theory and based on the different logic of security. The proposed approach is valuable for constructive reflection and critical analysis of security practices that are most common in contemporary neoliberal societies of the West.

The Worthy Human Being as Prosuming Subject: ‘Projectified Selves’ in Emancipatory Project Studies

The projectified self is suggested in this article as a way to advance emancipatory project studies toward improved understandings of how individuals in contemporary neoliberal societies are urged to become self-controlling, self-improving, self-commercializing, life-compartmentalizing, and deadline driven. We propose (1) a developed theoretical foundation for studies of the projectified self, based on recent writings on enterprising selves, and (2) the notion of prosumption as a concept for how the worthiness of this projectified self is constructed in a simultaneous process of project-based production and consumption. This is discussed in relation to the on-going studies of social media entrepreneurs.

Making time for food when ‘doing time’; how enhanced status prisoners counter the indignity of prison foodways

In contemporary neo-liberal societies, forms of responsible individualism and approaches to everyday foodways that reify healthy home-cooked food prepared from scratch, eaten together around a table are imbued with high cultural capital. What are the implications of this for criminalised individuals incarcerated in a prison system in England and Wales, that works with extremely low budgets, makes heavy use of pre-packaged convenience food and serves food to prisoners in their cells? Indeed, findings from Her Majesty's Inspectorate for Prison Report on food (2016:13), claims that ‘the quantity and quality of the food provided [in prison] is insufficient, and the conditions in which it is served and eaten undermine respect for prisoners’ dignity’, which they argue has implications in terms of increasing the marginalisation and alienation of the prison population from the ‘free community’. In this paper I draw on data from 39 in depth interviews at a resettlement scheme in England, conducted with 18 prisoners released on temporary licence from the resettlement wing of a closed and segregated Category C male prison. The enhanced status of prisoners and the benefits of being on the resettlement wing affords opportunities in relation to everyday foodways not available to regular prisoners. Their narrative accounts of prison foodways exemplify some of the HMIP findings and demonstrate how an enhanced prisoner status can counter notions of food as threat and poison, through systems of bartering, solidarity and recompense.

Adrian Piper's aesthetic agency: Photography as catalysis for resisting neo-liberal competitive paradigms

Abstract Contemporary neo-liberal society is ruled by the market. Davies, Chen and Lentin and Titley show that its objectification and categorization founds a competitive notion of agency that disables subjective construction of self and intersubjective understanding of the world. As the market's rules and norms are set by white patriarchy, its competitive paradigm structurally disadvantages others. Art too is objectified and categorized by neo-liberal institutions, equally embedded in white patriarchal market structures and severely limiting democratic public access to a diverse artistic field, argue hooks, Mercer and Piper. Yet, Piper's artwork shows, art holds emancipatory potential. Defined as transforming experience, its ambiguity provides a structure for constituting agentic subjectivity and intersubjective signification processes, defying objective/objectifying market workings. Photography's specific qualities allow Piper to democratize access to the paradigm she proposes. Her artistic choices may thus found the potential to publicly construct a notion of aesthetic agency as resistance to the neo-liberal market.

Credit/debt and human capital: Financialized neoliberalism and the production of subjectivity

Adding to contemporary debates about the relationship between financialization and neoliberalism, this article investigates their entanglement at the level of subjectivity. Primarily, the article argues that financialization and neoliberalism are converging to produce a new form of subjectivity, post-profit homo œconomicus, an always indebted but credit-seeking enterprise. The value of this approach, the article demonstrates, is that it provides theoretical tools capable of grasping the differential production of subjectivity across the uneven and unequal striations of contemporary neoliberal society, from precarious workers of the gig economy to financial sector elites. The article examines two figures who have become central to public and academic debates about neoliberalism and financialization – the low-waged, precarious worker and the indebted student – to consider how neoliberal subjectivity is produced and distributed unevenly. It concludes that within these fragmentary socioeconomic positions are different instantiations of always indebted but credit-seeking human capital.

Informed consent in physiotherapy practice: it is not what is said but how it is said

This paper discusses the concept of informed consent in the context of contemporary biomedical ethics. A change in UK law regarding what information should be provided to patients has brought to the fore the role of physiotherapists in the process of gaining informed consent. It is important that physiotherapists are aware of how this change in the law will affect their practice.For an individual to consent, they need to have both the capacity and freedom to exercise rational thought. These concepts are challenged in contemporary biomedical ethics. An individual’s ability to make rational decisions has been increasingly questioned by empirical evidence from behavioural psychology. In addition, the concept of freedom in contemporary neoliberal societies has also been critically examined. Liberal paternalism has been advocated by some as a means of helping patients to make better decisions about their care. Actualised as a ‘nudge’, liberal paternalism has been influential in a number of health policies, and has recently been discussed as a means of gaining consent from patients for assessments and treatments.Physiotherapists engage directly with patients and, through this engagement, construct a therapeutic environment that aims to build mutual trust. This paper questions the legitimacy of informed consent, and presents the argument that, through communicative actions, physiotherapists nudge patients into consenting to assessments and treatments.

The visible and invisible occupations of food provisioning in low income families

ABSTRACTFood-related occupations connect people with family, community, tradition, ritual, and culture. They are a means of producing and conveying social identities, as they are rife with symbolic meaning. Food provisioning occupations require complex knowledges and skills, particularly for those living on low income. This qualitative analysis explores the occupations of food provisioning for 31 low-income families in Canada. Participants displayed substantial planning, strategy and skill to circumvent the barriers imposed by transportation, financial limitations, and competing priorities. Providing food was a highly meaningful component of parenting for most adults, yet their actual experiences of grocery shopping on low income were often quite unpleasant. In contemporary neoliberal societies in which responsible, disciplined consuming is a hallmark of good citizenship, food provisioning is subject to intense judgement and stigma. Attending to the way low income shoppers describe their own food provisioning occupations reveals resistance to dominant discourses that position them as lazy, uneducated and irresponsible. Instead they draw on alternative discourses to position themselves as frugal, knowledgeable, skilled consumers, and good parents by oppositional standards.

‘When “Lady in Red” Plays, Dance with the Person Next to You’

This article considers the dramaturgies of proximity employed by the performance artist Kim Noble in his show You’re Not Alone (2016).[{note}]1 It does so by analysing the relationship Noble establishes with his audience and the potential impact of several moments of the performance. This analysis is based on four viewings of You’re Not Alone throughout 2015–2016 (Soho Theatre, London, and Contact Theatre, Manchester). Following a personal description of my own experience during a performance of You’re Not Alone, the article focuses on how Noble uses moments of abjection and precarity to explore loneliness in contemporary neoliberal society.[{note}]2 To analyse proximity in Noble's performance, the article turns to the work of Julia Kristeva, Imogen Tyler and Sara Ahmed when discussing the abject and Judith Butler and Emmanuel Levinas when considering precarity. Drawing on Lauren Berlant's Cruel Optimism (2011), the article concludes by arguing that Noble's work is less optimistic than marketing rhetoric surrounding the show might suggest: the utopic projects featured in You’re Not Alone are intentionally bathetic. In You’re Not Alone, Noble purposefully presents his spectators with images of failed utopias to highlight the contested space of proximity: attempting to become close to someone (both physically and emotionally) can be simultaneously a comfort and a threat. The ideology of neoliberal projects such as the ‘Big Society,’ in which individual voluntarism is encouraged, have failed as a policy and You’re Not Alone makes this explicit in performance.