Neoliberal Research Articles

Challenging Ableism: Caregiving and Healthcare in John Belluso’s Pyretown

John Belluso’s play Pyretown depicts a single mother’s struggle with the American healthcare system and portrays the destructive consequences of ableism existing in the neoliberal structures. Even though neoliberal ideology promises happiness, health and success through hard work and consumption, the characters in the play are victimized by highly valued autonomy, profit, and privatization. In such a system, disability is also thought to be an individual experience, yet the play shows that it is only a part of complex dynamics in daily life. On her journey to learn disability as a multifaceted experience, Lou engages in affective relationships with Harry and Rebecca whose lives are also jeopardized by the medical industrial complex. The realist portrayal of disability problematizes the job market, the healthcare and welfare system in the United States while promoting for a reform in the social, cultural, and political discourses. Within this context, this article argues that Belluso’s Pyretown exposes and critiques neoliberal ableism as it exists in American society while portraying the complexities of caregiving, motherhood, and disability.

Beyond the psychedelic hype: Exploring the persistence of the neoliberal paradigm

AbstractBackground and AimsAdvocates of psychedelic medicine have positioned psychedelics as a novel therapeutic intervention that will solve the mental health crisis by liberating individuals from their entrenched habits and limiting beliefs. Despite claims for novelty, the psychedelics industry is engaging in the same profit-oriented approaches that contributed to poor clinical outcomes with SSRIs and other earlier pharmaceuticals, which threatens to undermine their purported clinical benefits.MethodsWe present evidence that the liberatory rhetoric of psychedelic medicalization promotes neoliberal, individualised treatments for distress, which distracts from collective efforts to address root causes of suffering through systemic change. Drawing examples from the psychedelics industry, we illustrate how the discourse of psychedelic medicalisation subjects socially-determined distress to psychotropic intervention through the mechanisms of depoliticisation, productivisation, pathologisation, commodification, and de-collectivisation.ResultsRather than disrupting or subverting the psychopharmaceutical status quo, the psychedelic industry's current instantiation aligns with and upholds key facets of neoliberal ideology by adhering to the same facilitative mechanisms that scholars identified in the antidepressant industry. We identify these common mechanisms in examples unique to the psychedelics industry, including the search for psychedelic analogues and political lobbying to reschedule psychedelics.ConclusionWe demonstrate how a neoliberal mental health paradigm that individualises and interiorizes mental distress cannot meaningfully resolve suffering with ubiquitous origins in the current sociopolitical environment, which is characterised by inequality, precarity, exploitation, and ecological collapse. As a result, psychedelics must decouple from neoliberal incentives, and demonstrate efficacy, if they are to facilitate durable improvements in well-being and prosocial outcomes.

UKRAINE'S EUROPEAN INTEGRATION: FUNDAMENTALS OF LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT REGULATION

The purpose of the paper is to identify the foundations, problems and prospects of modernization of labour legislation and employment sphere in the process of European integration of Ukraine, which is discussed in the context of optimisation of factors of competitiveness of the national economy in the globalised world. Methodology. A significant number of commitments regarding the convergence of labour legislation and regulatory principles of the Ukrainian labour sphere with the EU acquis communautaire require a broad inter-sectoral and inter-ministerial approach to the study, development and implementation of relevant processes and measures. Results. Activities aimed at bringing Ukrainian labour legislation into line with the provisions of EU law take place in the following areas: standardisation of the basic principles of labour legislation; prevention of discrimination and ensuring gender equality of employees; ensuring their safety at work. The difficulties in meeting the requirements of the EU acquis communautaire in the field of employment and ensuring the social and labour rights of the working population are largely connected with the contradictory interpretations of Ukraine's obligations under the Association Agreement by the EU itself and by representatives of the national legislative and executive authorities, oriented towards the development of a neoliberal economy with the rejection of a large part of the usual social guarantees, a significant strengthening of employers' rights. Practical implications. The identified problems of the reform of the labour legislation of Ukraine within the framework of the obligations of the Association Agreement with the EU testify to the necessity of more careful consideration of the achievements of the established national practice of regulating the labour sphere together with activation of the acquis communautaire in the sphere of observance of social and labour rights of certain categories of employees and labour collectives, ensuring labour safety in the conditions of modernisation and diversification of the technological base of the economy, as well as to the necessity of implementation of the best world standards and benchmarks of improving the quality of working life. Value/originality. Expectations for a sustainable adaptation of the Ukrainian labour sphere to the common EU legal framework are closely linked to the overcoming of the identified contradictions in the interpretation of the Association Agreement obligations by the national authorities, and also to the focus on the foundations of the harmonisation of legislative norms through increasing the effectiveness of the social dialogue.

Working in the “Neo-Liberal Hegemony”: An Investigation on Entrepreneurial Mindset of Internal Labor Market Based on Individual Differences

Neo-liberal economy, distinguished by its emphasis on innovation and competition driven by buyer’s authority, necessitates workforce to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset (EM) for self-improvement. The aim of this study is to investigate the EM among employees in the neo-liberal economy. The objective is to discern the attributes associated with EM within the internal labor market, while also investigating the influence of individual variances upon these attributes. We obtained our samples by administering a set of questionnaires to a cohort of 261 individuals employed in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) located within the geographic scope of China. Our investigation has probed into the facets of the EM, encompassing innovativeness, need for achievement, risk-taking, autonomy, and proactiveness. These components were subjected to rigorous scrutiny through the utilization of t-tests and analysis of variance techniques, with the objective of detecting noteworthy disparities among gender, age, educational attainment, and salary scale in relation to these five dimensions of EM. Furthermore, we have bolstered our research findings with supplementary evidence derived from additional correlation analyses. Our study’s findings reveal that age and educational levels do not manifest substantial variations in EM. However, we do observe significant distinctions in EM across varying income levels and genders. Additionally, this paper addresses the implications of our findings, delineates the limitations encountered in our study, and elucidates potential directions for future research. This paper’s originality stems from its unique analysis of the interaction between neo-liberal economic policies and individual entrepreneurship in China, as seen through the perspective of its generation raised post-market transformation.

Basic Analytical Assumptions of Empowering the Periphery

Against the background of the global crises and the urgency it created, the authors attempt to problematise the pathways to empowering the peripheries of the world – the victimised, excluded, humiliated and entangled. As assumptions relevant for the empowerment of the peripheries they discuss: the need to re-read one’s own history; “accurate reconnaissance” of the current local circumstances; understanding the “workings of the global neoliberal capitalism”; focusing on integrating, making use of new scientific insights, reinvigorating fundamental values and generating internal actors of change; establishing new transformative alliances of the peripheries. The assumptions are contextualized in relation to the process of transition taking place in post-apartheid South Africa and post-socialist Serbia.

Situating Health Experiences: A Culture-Centered Interrogation

ABSTRACT Culture-centered studies of health communication de-center the theorization of health as an individual behavior and reveal the structural conditions that shape inequalities in health outcomes. The present study examines the ways in which space and housing shape experiences of health in a low-income site in Auckland undergoing radical redevelopment. We draw from a culture-centered project undertaken in 2018–2021 predominantly among Māori and Pasifika peoples involving 60 initial in-depth interviews, seven focus groups, a series of filmed interviews, and 32 additional in-depth interviews conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The residents’ narratives foregrounded the detrimental health impact of inadequate housing, financial constraints, transience, and displacement that severs ties to place and community. These findings reveal the relationship between housing challenges, economic marginalization, and neoliberal capitalism, highlighting the need for policy interventions to address housing as a fundamental determinant of health disparities among marginalized communities.

SDG commentary: services from institutions that offer fair and sustainable living for all humans

PurposeThe purpose of this commentary is to present a critically constructive examination of the contribution of service research to the development of services from institutions that offer fair and sustainable living for all humans.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw upon critical thinking and critical social theory to problematise the neoliberal agenda (e.g. marketisation and privatisation) that shapes the service ecosystems within which the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and service research relating to SDG11 – sustainable cities and communities – and SDG16 – peace, justice and strong institutions – are often based. The authors critically review extant literature aimed at these goals and present constructive pathways for transformative social change to foster fair and sustainable living for all.FindingsThe authors find that the United Nations institutions, the SDGs and the service ecosystems that shape the research and practice addressing SDG11 and SDG16 are often grounded in neoliberal capitalist ideology that may inhibit transformative change. While service research has made some relevant and important contributions to support the development of services from institutions that offer fair and sustainable living, there is a need to consider alternative assumptions upon which service research and service design can be based to fully realise such transformative goals.Originality/valueThis commentary encourages service research scholars to engage with critically constructive perspectives that harness critique for transformative change.

The discourse of the Anthropocene and posthumanism: Mining-induced loss of traditional land and the Mongolian nomadic herders

For over five millennia, Mongolia has been home to a remarkably resilient, land-connected, pastoral nomadic way of life and cultural heritage. Traditional local communities of Mongolian nomadic herders are custodians of the land. Since Mongolia’s transition to a democracy and neoliberal capitalist economy in the 1990s, an unprecedented mining boom has set in as large deposits of mineral resources were discovered. The mining boom and climate change impacts have put mounting pressure on herders’ ability to access their traditional land. Drawing on ethnographic research through storywork with Mongolian nomadic herders ( malchid) in their traditional land ( nutag) in the Gobi Desert region in Mongolia, this study aims to expand the discourse of the Anthropocene by engaging with the concept of posthumanism. We unpack the predominant discourse among Mongolian nomadic herders – loss of traditional land – induced by mining. In the Anthropocene – the epoch of human-induced planetary change – herders have become victims of both human-induced global environmental and climate change and the neoliberal capitalist extractive economy. Driven by mining-induced forced displacement from their traditional land and the natural resources on which they depend, herders are marginalised, resulting in the loss of their livelihood and severing of their special relationship and spiritual connection with their traditional land. We conclude that Mongolian nomadic herders’ voices urge us that it is crucial to expand and pluralise the discourse of the Anthropocene by relearning our ancestral ways of knowing, being and doing, and reconnecting to our holistic, spiritually and physically entwined, reciprocal and symbiotic relationship with land, non-human beings and the natural world that are all regarded as living and sentient entities with identity, agency and intentionality. Mongolian nomadic herders’ ancestral cosmology and onto-epistemology turn us to posthuman or more-than-human ways of understanding and interacting with the world, which decentre human exceptionalism and dominant position in the Anthropocene.

Everyday Practices, Unaffordable Rights, Radical Liberation: Reproductive Justice Direct Service Activism

In post- Roe America, access to reproductive care is rapidly dwindling, with the criminalization of abortion on the rise. Yet, in these frustrating and perilous times, organizations, activists, and volunteers facilitate access to care every day via digital direct service activism. This article is a meditation on the transformational nature of direct service praxis in the contemporary reproductive justice movement. To document my own ongoing transformation, I include autoethnographic reflections on my experiences as a direct service volunteer from August 2021 to December 2022. Practices such as distributing abortion funding and peer counseling on an anonymous talkline have transformed my understanding and experience of liberation work. I want to draw attention to these quiet actions and exchanges that often go unnoticed in our loud, neoliberal capitalist context. These communions of care and connection help forge the future now, in small, radical, and tangible ways.

Working Conditions Are Learning Conditions: Understanding Information Literacy Instruction through Neoliberal Capitalism

Working Conditions Are Learning Conditions: Understanding Information Literacy Instruction through Neoliberal Capitalism

Back to Marx: reflections on the feminist crisis at the crossroads of neoliberalism and neoconservatism

Contemporary feminism is currently at a crossroads, facing a concerted onslaught from both neoliberal and neoconservative ideologies. While these ideologies are inherently different—neoliberalism often appropriates feminist language to serve capitalist ends, and neoconservatism typically attacks feminist principles—they similarly reinforce the traditional role of families as providers of welfare. This crisis of alienation in feminism is characterized by three key factors: the gender divisions brought about by feminism’s shift to identity politics, the obscuring of feminist critique of capitalism by the spread of commercialization, and the instrumentalization of feminism in politics. These challenges have resulted in increased class antagonism and the further marginalization of lower-income women, reinforcing one another. To address this multifaceted crisis, a return to Marxist thought is deemed necessary for women’s liberation. The historical foundation of women’s issues can be traced back to class oppression, which stems from the primacy of material production over reproductive labor. In this context, gender oppression becomes an instrument that perpetuates class oppression. Only by interpreting women’s bodily autonomy and power from the perspective of material life and class reproduction, and by uniting various social forces against capitalism with practical actions, can feminism regain its vitality. Although the current global women’s movement is full of internal divisions, contradictions, and struggles, there is still hope for achieving unity. When the day comes, history will confirm that true gender equality is not merely the promotion of individual choice for a few, but the emancipation of all, and Marxism will be recorded once again in the history of human liberation. To accomplish this grand objective, the vital step is to end the marginalization of Marxist Feminism.

The Impacts of Neoliberal Ideology on Chinese Education System

This essay examines the notion that "choice, competition, and individualization are the best ways to raise educational standards." Neoliberalism seen via a Chinese perspective. The background details China's contemporary neo-liberal educational system and emphasizes the importance of the concept of education equity. The portion about option identifies the Chinese no need to choose solution, which is fair in light of Chinese ideology. The element of competition places public schools in competition with private schools. Diverged competition was suggested in this part, and China must bring it back to a sensible and manageable level. The final individualization section highlights the extreme Chinese embrace of shadow education while disregarding its role in advancing educational justice.

Examining the political economy of heteronormativity in Southeast Asian queer migration biographies

This article examines the workings of heteronormativity in Southeast Asian queer migration biographies. By Southeast Asian queer migrants, the project refers to people self-identifying as gender and sexuality diverse from dominant gender and sexuality binary systems and people with variations in sex characteristics who have emigrated out of their home country in the Southeast Asian region. The exploratory study makes use of qualitative data collected from in-depth interviews with 15 queer migrants from Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and The Philippines and Thailand on their local and transnational familial care practices and needs. The respondents on one hand, through emigration, have attempted to veer off from discriminatory heteronormative structures in their home country and enjoyed relatively more space and opportunities in the receiving society to construct queer familial care practices. On the other hand, their queer migration biographies show how they continue to be implicated in the political economy of heteronormativity locally through their own queer familial practices and transnationally through their financial and emotional remittances to support heteronormative families of origin. The article argues that queer citizens and migrants deserve equal if not greater recognition for their unrelenting local and transnational care efforts to sustain heteronormative families in a global neoliberal economy and should not have to experience exclusion for being deemed as having deviated from heteronormative structures.

Utjecaj scenske lutke na razvoj empatije kod učenika mlađe školske dobi

In today's time of global change and recessionary crises, the importance of the "little man" in the context of understanding his existential needs and for the purpose of self-realisation is often overlooked. In the torrent of adaptation to these changes of world proportions, man seems to be lost. Neoliberal capitalism, with its culture of narcissism and the cult of individualism, we dare say, creates a culture of ruthlessness and indifference in which we become immune to social tragedies and observers of human suffering. By permeating aesthetic-artistic and empathic features as essential components of what constitutes the essence of man, it is possible to achieve harmonious interpersonal relationships as prerequisites for the first steps towards more successful growth and adaptation of the individual. It is necessary to mention the role of empathy and empathetic and caring thinking, which, along with critical and creative thinking, is an indispensable trinity when it comes to children's educational process. What constitutes the essence of empathy itself, as an act of humanisation of man, is the imaginative leap, which is a prefix for overcoming social and political obstacles, limitations, marginalisation and distances that are a brake on indulging in other people's feelings. One of the ways to help express feelings in children is a stage puppet. Through play, the child spontaneously takes on roles to express his or her thoughts, efforts, desires, wills, and feelings in a creative way. Puppetry education is an important component of the child's overall development, starting from the earliest age when the newborn exercises motor skills all the way to psychosocial development in later life. The application of the stage puppet is wide, so it is used in resolving peer conflicts and discovering new artistic inclinations. This also contributes to education for empathy, mutual respect and the development of social skills. This paper will attempt to show the importance of its use and influence on the development of empathy at a young school age. After the theoretical framework, which explains the importance and role of puppetry and empathy in children's lives, the methodological approach to action research will present the practical part of the work. This includes drama workshops, as a presentation of the impact of puppetry on the development of empathy in lower grades, with and emphasis on he need to nurture an imaginative leap by indulgence. Through the discussion, we try to expand and re-examine the hypothesis and offer answers appropriate to the problem.

Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation

It is surprising how one generation can be unmindful of another generation’s lived reality and challenges. How well do the Baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) and Generation X (or Gen X, born between 1965 and 1980) understand the lived reality of the millennials (Generation Y or Gen Y, born between 1981 and 1996)? Surely, boomers and Gen X’s would benefit from understanding millennials and their upbringing, cultural conditioning, and expectations. Anne Helen Petersen’s Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation is a good starting point in this understanding. The book’s central theme is the feeling of millennials’ “burnout” in the face of growing up, securing a career, and raising children. “Can’t even” means one is emotionally overwhelmed. Petersen explores five topics: (i) the conditioning of the millennials by their boomer parents, (ii) millennials’ expectations of college and university, (iii) internships and graduate employment and careers, (iv) leisure and free time, and (v) parenthood. Petersen investigates the millennials’ “burnout” and opportunities and challenges in the broader context of late capitalism (neoliberal ideology) and global events (the 2003 Iraq War, the 2008 recession, and the COVID-19 pandemic). Overall, the book highlights that a balanced and quality life for millennials requires intergenerational understanding and government policies to enable them to experience the “good life”.

Who needs the social model of disability?

Over the past two decades, there has been a growing shift away from the Social Model of Disability (SMD) in both theory and practice. This article aims to substantiate the relevance of SMD by addressing the main arguments against it and by identifying why and for whom it is still relevant. In the introductory section, we focus on the recent production of multiple disability models in order to contextualize their emergence and elucidate the reasons behind their proliferation. In the main section of the article, we critically engage with three lines of criticism against SMD in order to explain why it remains relevant and for whom. Our main point is that, in the context of the neoliberal capitalist era, the SMD is indispensable for all disabled persons who have been denied their dignity, both in material and cultural terms.

Care and COVID 19: Lessons for liberals and neoliberals

AbstractWithin the liberal political traditions, care is regarded as a private matter, a problem of ethics rather than justice. Social justice is framed as an issue of economics (re/distribution), culture (recognition) and/or politics (representation). The pandemic challenged this liberal patriarchal paradigm; it placed the care relational lives of human beings centre stage in terms of social justice, not only in terms of who did or did not do the caring, who was and was not cared for, but who was capable of caring while balancing paid‐work time with care‐work time. The pandemic also challenged dominant ontological assumptions about the human condition, especially assumptions about invulnerability and autonomy that are so pervasive in a neoliberal capitalist era. The vulnerability of the human body came into sharp relief, especially in Western countries where infectious diseases were assumed to be under control. The autonomy myth was shattered too, as unforeseen and uncontrollable social isolation created emotional and relational vulnerabilities. People learned, often in painful ways how the loss of companionship diminished their sense of who they were. Above all, the pandemic demonstrated that the both the personal and professional care infrastructure of societies is foundational to economic, political, cultural and environmental life. It highlighted how affective equality, that is, equality in the doing and receiving of love care and solidarity, is a key dimension of social justice. Consequently, it taught a lesson on why a care/needs‐based concept of justice is as important as a rights‐based theory and why one is incomplete without the other.

Neo-liberalism, human capital theory and the right to education: Economic interpretation of the purpose of education

With the end of WW II, a new world order emerged that recognised the significance of human rights as part of the remedial measures to institute global peace. This is recognised in Articles 1(3), 13(1)(b) and 55(c) of the 1945 United Nations Charter. Thereafter, the human rights ideals recognised by the UN Charter were codified into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948 (Fait, 2015: 26). Despite not having a binding force, the UDHR became a standard-setting instrument covering all generations of human rights including the right to education. Later, two distinct treaties – i.e., the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) 1966 and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) 1966 were adopted as a follow-up to the UDHR. Articles 13 and 14 of the ICESCR made more expansive provisions on the right to education than Article 26 of the UDHR. However, the adoption of policies driven by neoliberal ideals and associated neo-classical economic principles in the delivery of education has brought education under market forces, encapsulating it with an economic purpose. This makes education central to the realisation of the neoliberal ideology as schools focus on teaching technical skills and knowledge necessary for the achievement of the economic purposes of education. This paper argues that while the economic purpose of education which is in line with neoliberal and associated neo-classical economic principles is germane for states’ economic development, a holistic approach is consistent with the human rights purpose of education.

Voices of English education department teachers on traces of neoliberal ideology in the ‘Kampus Merdeka’ concept

<span lang="EN-US">Neoliberal ideology’s influence on higher education has been a concern for researchers on a global scale. Indonesian researchers have also examined the practice of neoliberalism in higher education. However, they only focused on the managerial dimension and there is a dearth of literature on the influence of neoliberalism ideology on educational policy. This study intends to close a gap in earlier studies by investigating the ideological remnants of Neoliberalism in the notion of ‘Kampus Merdeka’ or Emancipated Learning as perceived by 12 lecturers at English Education Department in Yogyakarta. This study employed a qualitative approach through the use of semi-structured interviews. The study found that university and departmental missions were aligned with industry demands; the curriculum was driven by industry; the teaching and learning process was determined by the market; the Tridharma of Higher Education was extended to industry; little emphasis was placed on moral and religious values; curriculum “vocationalization” was emphasized; collaboration with industry was focused; academic commodification and consumerism increased; and academic commodification and consumerism accelerated. The findings added to a new existing theme, that is increased collaboration with industry. Moral and religious values must be incorporated into the curriculum, as they are absent in ‘Kampus Merdeka’ paradigm.</span>

Patriarchy repackaged: how a neoliberal economy and conservative gender norms shape entrepreneurial identities in Eastern Europe

ABSTRACT Using positioning analysis we examine how women entrepreneurs construct their entrepreneurial identities in conversations with journalists. The data consists of every interview with women entrepreneurs in every Latvian monthly women’s magazine over a 30-year period. Eleven countries in Eastern Europe, including Latvia, broke away from the communist regime in the 1990s and embraced neoliberal and entrepreneurial values that rely on the use of agency in a free market and where individuals were considered autonomous agents, no longer constrained by gender inequalities and power imbalances. However, an analysis shows that identity constructions by women entrepreneurs have been built on neo-conservative assumptions regarding gender. The default option expressed in the magazines reveals that entrepreneurship is normatively masculine, and the entrepreneurial identity that is on offer for women is either as a ‘secondary entrepreneur’ or a ‘failed woman’. The post-feminist conception of a woman who can have it all, i.e. both a successful business career and a traditional feminine identity with a happy family life, is absent in the interviews. When neoliberalism entered Latvia and merged with neo-conservative gender roles, a specific Eastern European postfeminist regime emerged where neither entrepreneurship nor structural change can be seen as challenging the prevailing patriarchal gender order.