Dominant Neoliberal Paradigm Research Articles

Do we really need a “Digital Humanism”? A critique based on post-human philosophy of technology and socio-legal techniques

Few concepts have been subjected to as intense scrutiny in contemporary discourse as that of “humanism.” While these critiques have acknowledged the importance of retaining certain key aspects of humanism, such as rights, freedom, and human dignity, the term has assumed ambivalence, especially in light of post-colonial and gender studies, that cannot be ignored. The “Vienna Manifesto on Digital Humanism,” as well as the recent volume (2022) titled Perspectives on Digital Humanism, bear a complex imprint of this ambivalence. In this contribution, we aim to bring to the forefront and decipher this underlying trace, by considering alternative (non-humanistic) ways to understand human-technologies relations, beyond the dominant neoliberal paradigm (paragraphs 1 and 2); we then analyse those relations within the specific context of legal studies (paragraphs 3 and 4), one in which the interdependency of humans and non-humans shows a specific and complex form of “fundamental ambivalence.”

Future tense—Reorienting higher education toward an unknown future

In view of the recent pandemic and growing wicked problems associated with an uncertain, complex and unknown future, this paper explores academics' conceptualizations of the future. Inspired by Kuhn, we chose the academic conference as a public sphere where members of small networks of trusted peers and other such micro-communities gather, creating and recreating the past, present, and future through conversation and collaboration as the site of this paper. We thematically analyzed 83 calls from 39 conferences covering four English speaking regions: North America, Europe, Africa, and Australia/International and five different conference foci, including Teaching and Learning, SOTL, academic staff/faculty development, educational technology and Future Conferences, from 2019 to 2022. Applying thematic analysis, two main themes emerged in relation to the future: responsiveness and temporality. Responsiveness is reflective of the currently dominant neo-liberal paradigm, which seeks to foster incremental adaptations to changing conditions whereas temporality is indicative of more fundamental shifts in thinking. The findings reflect not just what the future may hold, but potentially deeper changes in the relationship between universities and their past, present, and future.

Conceptualizing cross-sectoral partnership building in two small central Appalachian towns

Abstract This article highlights the efforts of two rural communities located in Central Appalachia to address the conflicts and economic and social challenges that have arisen in each as a result of the decline of coal mining. Documenting and analyzing the processes and narratives gleaned from the authors’ long-term interaction with stakeholders in the two communities through field tours, community meetings, individual conversations, and group workshops revealed specific social and economic forces, including neoliberal ideology and the realities of its assumptions and public policies, as key forces shaping current community challenges. This article assesses the effectiveness of cross-sectoral partnerships constructed in both case communities aimed at addressing resource dependence, social legitimation, exchange needs, and strategic collaboration imperatives. We used Meadows’ systems thinking construct to identify the system elements that informed this analysis and to assess the efficacy of cross-sector partnership building in questioning dominant imaginaries and creating novel ways of being within communities undergoing transition from what have otherwise been economically and socially oppressive conditions. We found that stakeholders within the two communities have often struggled to maintain the cross-sectoral partnerships they have sought to create, let alone understand fully the outcomes of any intervention they might launch, despite their best intentions and plans. A lack of continuing communication among relevant stakeholders, limitations to encouraging citizens’ agential activities, and adopting strategies within the assumptions of the dominant neoliberal paradigm were among the main hindrances to realizing effective partnerships in the communities we analyzed.

Paradigm Change Through the Tiaki Promise

Abstract In the face of continued environmental, social and cultural degradation, what the world needs is a paradigm shift. A change in our paradigm (deepest worldviews and mindsets) to reflect our intrinsic connection with nature and the interconnectedness between people and place. Tourism is one place in which this can start. As one of the world’s largest industries tourism touches lives across the globe. It offers potential economic, social, environmental and cultural benefits, but equally it can have a negative impact on these factors. This is particularly so when tourism follows the dominant neoliberal paradigm which seeks growth over all else. An outcome of this neoliberal approach has been poor tourist behaviour that reflects the prioritization of tourist demands and growth in tourist numbers and expenditure over all else. One response to such behaviour has been the development of destination pledges. The Tiaki Promise destination pledge sows the seed for the common cause values, such as caring for others and connection with nature, that can facilitate paradigm change. Information Thanks to the ‘Good Tourism’ Blog for introducing the author to Tourism Cases © Bronwyn Hutchison 2022

ПРОБЛЕМА СОЦИАЛЬНО-ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОЙ ДИФФЕРЕНЦИАЦИИ ПРОСТРАНСТВА В АСПЕКТЕ РЕГИОНАЛЬНОЙ НЕОЛИБЕРАЛЬНОЙ ПОЛИТИКИ

Based on the methods of qualitative retrospective and cause-and-effect analysis of the texts of scientific articles on the research topic published in the abstract databases of domestic and foreign researchers’ publications, the author infers that by now the neoliberal concept has become a global paradigm of the universal (economic, socio-demographic, cultural, ecological, etc.) development of most states of the world. The author determines that one of the key provisions of this concept is the deregulation of the resource allocation process (state noninterference in the economy), which in practice, in the process of implementing the state regional policy, led to a widespread increase in the socioeconomic differentiation of territories. The latter, in turn, contradicts the declared goals of global (in the documents of the UN, the World Bank, and other international organizations) and regional development: these goals imply a reduction in the level of inequality between countries and within them. Based on the results of the analysis, the author of the study suggests that today, within the framework of the dominant neoliberal paradigm, the decision on the priorities of the leveling of the socioeconomic space is controversial. The theoretical significance of the results of the research lies in the expansion of theoretical and methodological ideas about the process of socioeconomic differentiation of territories considered in the aspect of the implemented neoliberal policy.

The Post-Anthropocene Diet: Navigating Future Diets for Sustainable Food Systems

This article examines how future diets could reduce the environmental impacts of food systems, and thus, enable movement into the post-Anthropocene. Such non-anthropocentric diets are proposed to address global food systems challenges inherent in the current geological epoch known as the Anthropocene—a period when human activity is the dominant cause of environmental change. Using non-anthropocentric indigenous worldviews and object-oriented ecosophy, the article discusses changes in ontologies around diets to consider choices made in the present for sustainable future food systems. This article conceptually addresses, how can pre-Anthropocene ontologies guide an exit of current approaches to diets? Considering temporality, what post-Anthropocene ontologies are possible in future diets for sustainable food systems? Through the ontological positions defining three distinct temporalities, considerations for guiding future diets in(to) the post-Anthropocene are proposed. Indigenous ontologies are presented as pre-Anthropocene examples that depict humans and non-humans in relational diets. Underlying Anthropocene ontologies define current unsustainable diets. These ontologies are described to present the context for the food systems challenges this article aims to address. A post-Anthropocene illustration then employs object-oriented ecosophy along with indigenous ontologies as theoretical foundations for shifting from the dominant neoliberal paradigm in current ontologies. Ontologically-based dietary guidelines for the post-Anthropocene diet present the ontological turns, consideration of temporality, and outline technological orientations proposed for sustainable future food systems. This is a novel attempt to integrate non-anthropocentric theories to suggest possible futures for human diets in order to exit the Anthropocene epoch. These non-anthropocentric ontologies demonstrate how temporal considerations and relational worldviews can be guidelines for transforming diets to address public health concerns, the environmental crisis, and socioeconomic challenges.

Towards Critical Analysis of the Political Determinants of Health Comment on "How Neoliberalism Is Shaping the Supply of Unhealthy Commodities and What This Means for NCD Prevention".

The recent perspective article "How Neoliberalism Is Shaping the Supply of Unhealthy Commodities and What This Means for NCD Prevention," by Lencucha and Throw, interrogates how the dominant neoliberal paradigm restricts meaningful policy action to prevent non-communicable diseases (NCDs). It contributes an NCD perspective to the existing literature on neoliberalism and health, which to date has been dominated by a focus on HIV, gender and trade agreements. It further advances the emerging commercial determinants of health (CDoH) scholarship by calling for more nuanced analysis of how the governance of both health and the economy facilitates corporate influence in policy-making. In political science terms, Lencucha and Throw are calling for greater structural analysis. However, their focus on the pragmatic, as opposed to political, aspects of neoliberalism reflects a hesitancy within health scholarship to engage in political analysis. This depoliticization of health serves neoliberal interests by delegitimizing critical questions about who sustains and benefits from current institutional norms. Lencucha and Throw’s call for greater interrogation of the structures of neoliberalism forms a basis from which to advance analysis of the political determinants of health.

Environmental Justice and Water Markets—an Antipodean Critique

Environmental Justice, as an influential movement in the USA, has generated significant policy outcomes because of executive mandate of its adoption in federal agencies. Whilst its initial premise emphasised health consequences of pollutants on underprivileged communities—particularly communities of colour—the concept has additional resonance as a correction to the dominant neo-liberal paradigm in natural resource management, particularly as it applies to rural and remote communities in Australia. This article uses the lense of environmental justice to consider climate change in Australia, considering in particular the effects of marketisation of the natural resource management issues.

The hybrid landscape of public space in Thessaloniki in the context of crisis

The article focuses on trends that redefine the public nature of public spaces in Thessaloniki by departing from publicly owned and managed spaces and introducing new agents to their management. The first trend is characterised by official urban policies that introduce the private and voluntary sector into the management and maintenance of public space. While forming part of the dominant neoliberal paradigm, privatisation processes materialise through a local mix of mechanisms in crisis-stricken Thessaloniki. The second trend originates from citizen-led initiatives and seeks to reassert ‘publicness’, foregrounding collective activity and participation. A case of urban farming of an abandoned military camp is reviewed as an example of this trend. The article argues that the two trends contribute to the creation of a hybrid landscape of public space in which the commonly perceived binary of private and public is redefined towards two divergent directions, representing different imaginaries of ‘publicness’.

Decline of ‘biodiversity’ in conservation policy discourse in Australia

Market-based instruments along with conceptualizing the environment as a collection of ‘ecosystem services’ has become increasingly common within environmental and conservation policy. This kind of thinking is also increasingly prominent in the public discourse surrounding environment and conservation policy, particularly in the context of communicating the importance of policy measures. Language used in public discourse can have a powerful influence on how people engage with policy issues, and changes within the biodiversity and conservation discourse may have consequences for public engagement in conservation. We explored how these factors are changing with time by documenting the use of the terms ‘bio’ and the prevalence of economic language in the text of 3553 media releases between 2003 and 2014 from the Australian Government environment portfolio, and 1064 media releases from the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF). Results show that in the last decade, the term ‘biodiversity’ has become less prevalent whilst economic language has increased in both Australian Government and ACF communication. A further content analysis in a subsample of 745 media releases explored the prevalence of ecosystem services framing, results indicating that it has become a mainstream concept. While this may reflect a strategic response by these agencies to better engage with both the general public and decision makers within what is an increasingly dominant neoliberal paradigm, we argue it may also have unintended (possibly adverse) impacts on how people think about and engage with biodiversity conservation.

The Practice of Changing the Rules of Practice: An Agonistic View on Food Sovereignty

What does it mean to “do politics”? On the one hand, political practices have to be considered as part of the large mesh of interrelated everyday practices. On the other hand, they are reflective “practices of freedom” that aim at changing the rules of practice. We will make a case for agonistic theory that takes democracy to be a constant struggle over the setting up and the different interpretations of rules and use practice theory as our entrance point to empirically address the tension between the constituted power that rules exert on our practice and the constituent power, i. e. the power to set up or change the rules. Empirically, we will have a closer look at the paradoxes and the practice of food sovereignty, a political concept that emerged as a counterpart to the dominant neoliberal paradigm of globalist food production and was taken up by leftist Latin American governments and social movements alike. By analyzing two concrete situations that emerged during our field work in Bolivia we will show that actual “practices of freedom” can appear to be quite ordinary and mundane.

Frantz Fanon and the problematic of decolonization: perspectives on Zimbabwe

The failure to achieve meaningful development by African countries, especially those that inherited relatively advanced infrastructure at independence, has remained a conundrum. Utilizing Frantz Fanon’s major writings and ideas, and other commentaries on Fanon’s work, this paper aims to expose the problem of achieving genuine development outside the dominant neoliberal paradigm. According to the government of Zimbabwe, the aim of their indigenization program is to achieve authentic national development and decolonization from British and European imperial control. By unmasking the contradictory nature of elite nationalism and the decolonization process in Zimbabwe, the paper unmasks the complexity of development outside the dominant Euro-America (corporate capitalist) paradigm. I consider the Zimbabwe case as an example of elite nationalists domesticating the neoliberal market system to achieve selfish economic aggrandizement while the rest of the population experience immizerating poverty. The emergence of the indigenous bourgeoisie among many other developments represents the ultimate fulfillment of Fanon’s prophecy. The paper argues for epistemological refocusing to achieve meaningful development and genuine decolonization.

Neodevelopmentalist state capitalism in Brazil and Argentina: chances, limits and contradictionsh

This article critically analyses the recent reinvigoration of state capitalist economic strategies, guided by neodevelopmentalist political thought, in Brazil and Argentina. It makes use of analytical tools drawn from materialist state theory and dependency perspectives to show how the chances, limits and contradictions of these projects are shaped by the basic dynamics of peripheral capitalism. Thus, while both the Brazilian and Argentine state capitalist strategies have been relatively successful on many counts, especially compared to the previously dominant neoliberal paradigm, their social and economic balance has remained ambiguous overall. While in the Brazilian case there has been no fundamental break with the historical pattern of exclusionary growth, Argentina has achieved better social results, but at the price of heightened political instability. Neither country has managed to overcome classical problems of dependent development, such as a dependence on primary goods exports.

Planning Inequality: Social and Economic Spaces in National Spatial Planning

While traces and techniques of power and contestation around the understanding and production of spaces are clearly recognized in the sociological and planning research literature, there has been little rigorous attention to how socio-spatial inequality is put at stake in strategic mobilization around particular spatial imaginaries. In an analysis of the German Spatial Planning Report, the paper examines how inequalities are represented in relation to space and movement in spatial strategy. The analysis shows how, in the report, the spatial dimension of the social is represented as a territorial container, in which the social merges into regional and national entities. Correspondingly, movement is only interpreted as a derived demand, ignoring its integrative aspect as precondition of participation and part of network capital. On the other hand, the spatiality of the economy is represented as something outside and fluid which is meant to be channelled into the territorial containers by means of regional development and spatial planning. These representations of the social suggest a territorialized culturally integrated society as the unquestioned frame of reference which has lost its adequacy and explanatory power against the background of a qualitatively and quantitatively increase of border transgressing relations and movements. However, this view covers the economic forces producing inequalities and reduces the political space of manoeuvre to redistributions within territorialized socialities, thus sustaining the dominant neoliberal paradigm.

The ideological roots of failure: the application of kinetic neo-liberalism to Iraq

This article argues that American policy towards Iraq went through four major shifts between the invasion in 2003 and the announcement of the surge in 2007. The best way to understand the Bush administration's evolving policy towards Iraq is by examining the ideological parameters within which it was made. The article assesses various approaches to understanding the relationship between ideology, policy making and foreign policy, concluding that ideology shapes the paradigm and analytical categories within which foreign policy is made. A major change in foreign policy originates either from the decision-maker consciously recognizing and attempting to rework the ideational parameters within which policy is made or in reaction to ‘discrepant information’ or ‘anomalies’ that destabilize the paradigm and its analytical categories. The article goes on to examine the extent to which both neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism shaped George W. Bush's foreign policy. It identifies a series of major analytical categories that originate from within these two doctrines and shaped policy towards Iraq. The article argues that the four major shifts in Bush's policy towards Iraq were forced upon the administration by the rising tide of politically motivated violence. Ultimately this violence forced Bush to abandon the major analytical categories that, up to 2007, had given his policy coherence. In order to extricate his administration from the quagmire that Iraq had become by 2006, Bush totally transformed his approach, dropping the previously dominant neo-liberal paradigm and adopting a counter-insurgency doctrine.

The Pioneers of Development Economics: Great Economists on Development

DOI: 10.1355/ae23-2m The Pioneers of Development Economics: Great Economists on Development. Edited by Jomo K.S. New Delhi: Tulika Books; London and New York: Zed Books, 2005. Pp. 234. The central preoccupation of modern economic thinking over past two centuries has been question of how best to foster national economic development. Emerging in conjunction with industrial capitalism, economic thinking has given rise - after many permutations - to a dominant orthodoxy popularly known as Washington Consensus, which promotes a Neoliberal economic order based on profit motive, markets, and free trade. The current book is part of a trilogy that aims to trace and reassess of economic ideas, presenting both a critique and an alternative discourse to dominant Neoliberal paradigm. In a crucial contribution to history of economic thought, contributors to this book revisit and reassess important contributions to debates surrounding economic through analysing work of many economists that are not normally considered pioneers of economics. The authors of volume suggest that way forward for is to reject imperialist and nineteenth century English liberal economic orthodoxy and instead build on heterodox economic legacies of various economists examined in book. Indeed, this book (and two others in trilogy) is part of ongoing reassessment of as a discipline to make it less autistic and respond more effectively to needs of developing world. In doing so, essays in this collection provide a critical response to formalistic reductionism in as well as a wealth of alternative views on economic ideas from the pioneering generation of post-war decades, reflecting diversity that still characterised economic thought at that time, before orthodoxy of today was established (pp. vii-viii). This current volume is comprised of sixteen chapters, and in its introduction, Jomo K.S., currently Assistant secretary General for Economic Development in United Nation's Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), contends that a re-evaluation of history of provides an opportunity to challenge current 'limited and limiting' Neoliberal perspective, whose fundamental categories of analysis are necessarily linked to particular historical circumstances (p. viii). Prabhat Patnaik, in first chapter of book, argues that division between economics and development as disciplines should be rejected, as underdeveloped economies are not merely laggards struggling to catch up with economies. Rather, their state is a result of their interaction with metropolitan capitalism, and not due to their pristine pre-capitalist condition. Prabhat Patnaik argues that developed and underdeveloped countries together constitute totality of capitalism (p. 6) and this totality must be domain of analysis of economic theory, to be treated as a whole. The following chapters reassess contributions of many different economists in their richness and variety to ideas on economic development. While Karl Marx, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Alexander Gerschenkron, Raul Prebisch, Arthur Lewis, and Hans Singer are normally seen as key - albeit heterodox - thinkers in of ideas in economics, other contributors in book also assess works and ideas of economists such as William Petty, Friedrich List, Alexander Hamilton, Alfred Marshall, Michael Kalecki, Nicholas Kandor, and John Maynard Keynes. Given richness of debates that chapters in volume discuss, this review focuses on two chapters as examples: Utsa Patnaik's chapter on David Ricardo and Kari Polanyi Levitt's on his father, Karl Polanyi. Utsa Patnaik, in his contribution to volume, takes David Ricardo to task and argues that his theory of comparative advantage rests on an erroneous assumption. …