Neoliberal Globalization Research Articles

Is “Application” Everything about Studying for a University Degree? The Multiple Influences Shaping Undergraduates in Chinese Higher Education in Contemporary Times

Abstract Based on the self-reflection of 22 undergraduate students at a renowned Chinese university regarding their journey towards obtaining a bachelor’s degree, this study reveals the discrepancy between the idealistic functions and missions of higher education as perceived by students and their actual implementations in the real world. It further explores the multifaceted logics exerted by the higher education environment on students during their educational journey. Data analysis shows that contemporary global neoliberalism, alongside traditional Chinese cultural ideologies such as Confucianism and Daoism, significantly impacts the educational philosophies of university students to varying extents. These diverse ideologies drive students to demonstrate varied learning states and behaviors, showcasing the complex interplay of global and local forces in shaping student experiences in higher education.

Defending and expanding industrial democracy and worker cooperatives in an age of neoliberal globalisation

ABSTRACT Neoliberalism has reinforced inequality, environmental collapse, famine, refugee crises, supply chain vulnerabilities and more. We agree with Gibson-Graham (2006) that the core of the issue for a post-capitalist politics is to overcome the sense of the inevitability of the dominant system of political economy. With this argument in mind, we analyse the diversity, innovativeness, and resilience of two specific manufacturing alternatives to neoliberal capitalism: the Norwegian industrial democracy and the Mondragon Cooperative Experience. The cases show that each example arises from a unique history, environment, and has unique structures. This diversity shows that there are many paths to workplace democracy, such systems are capable of innovation, and they are internationally competitive. Our comparison also reveals that no successful equilibrium is ever static. Scaling (up or out) to secure market share presents a challenge potentially existential for both models. Reviewing their efforts for meeting these challenges conclude our analysis.

ESTADO COMO SOLUÇÃO

After the 1990s, the neoliberal agenda was disseminated to the countries on the global periphery as the path to achieving economic prosperity, suggesting that national states were no longer important in the face of "inevitable" globalization. The aim of this essay is to consider the relevance of the role of the state in the development process and to answer the question: in the context of neoliberal globalization, what role still "belongs" to national states in promoting development? Additionally, what challenge does the Brazilian state face in this new context? We draw on authors who address the issue of economic development and the role of the state in this process from a broad perspective. It was found that countries, especially those on the periphery, that "chose" the market as the primary mechanism for regulating economic activity failed copiously, given that private capital is unable to structure the economy and support a development process in the manner of Developmentalist States. It is concluded that, understood as a long-term process, and in light of the challenges of the global economy, the effectiveness of the state in the development process is central to any realistic agenda for economic development.

Living in the slipstream of defeat: neoliberalism and the far-right

AbstractThis essay suggests stretching Saull's structuralist account of the relationship between neoliberal globalisation and the far-right to accommodate subaltern agency and resistance. Taking this step makes transparent that the rising fortunes of the far-right is indivisible from the historic defeat that neoliberal globalisation inflicted on the global Left in the 1970s and 1980s. The victorious neoliberal elites went onto produce a refashioned differentialist racism to replace the now discredited scientific racism but also married this to the ideology of multicultural capitalism to accommodate the new postcolonial centres of accumulation. However, in the absence of a socialist alternative to neoliberal globalisation and the continuing technical and political decomposition of class as a social force, the resulting political void since the 2007 crisis has been increasingly filled by the forces of the far-right. Tragically, the choice facing us today seems to be the slow but relentless asphyxiation of the remaining progressive elements of capitalist modernity or their overnight destruction through a fascist ‘big bang’ ideologically dressed as the restoration of ‘rights for whites.’

Globalisation in-Between Homogenisation and Heterogenisation: An Institutionalist Analysis on Türkiye

ABSTRACT While neoliberal globalisation exerts both homogenising and heterogenising forces on a global scale, an excessive emphasis on its homogenising effects can lead to overly optimistic and unrealistic future projections. This study, instead, directs its focus towards the heterogenising impact of neoliberal principles and norms on Türkiye through an institutionalist lens. Beginning with a historical analysis and subsequently conducting an empirical examination using World Values Survey (WVS) data, the research reveals that the divergent evolution of Türkiye and the West created structural differentiation preventing Türkiye’s homogeneous integration into the West. A process tracing analysis spanning from 1990 to 2017 further demonstrates that Türkiye's historically evolved social institutions exhibit resilience against the pressures of neoliberal change, despite its widespread diffusion throughout the country since 1980. As a result, this paper posits that heterogenisation and its inherent unpredictability are destined to shape the future global landscape, challenging the optimistic assumptions of pro-globalisation advocates.

Networking ATTAC: the local branch of ATTAC in Argentina

ABSTRACT ATTAC is a network of international twin organizations that opposes the neo-liberal globalization aiming at pledging essential rights for everybody. On this basis, the local branch of ATTAC in Argentina was investigated in order to understand “if” and “how” its interconnections with other political and social movement organizations are helpful in building an effective national political strategy and which could contribute to the pan-American one. The local branch of ATTAC-Quebec was also previously investigated and a South-to-North continuity-line might be traced that connects the two organizations. Participant observation and qualitative network interviews were employed in Argentina. The multiple political membership approach inspired the research while the social network analysis was developed through eight interviews with ATTAC militants. Among others, the militants were asked which other groups and organizations they were simultaneously associated with, and the network available was also qualitatively discussed further. In the fieldwork it was noticed that ATTAC-Argentina does not count so many activists. However, the Argentinean and Canadian militants also suggest that “number doesn’t matter”. In fact, someone noticed that the strength and the political effectiveness of the two organizations is represented by the network available to them. In other words, the data describe ATTAC-Argentina as a group that can count on a solid network of left-wing organizations through the militants’ political grid. This grid combined with the solid network of organizations on the pan-American scale represents an effective political option for the Latin-American branch of ATTAC for the present and the time to come.

면역성과 취약성의 교차적 관점에서 본 코로나19 팬데믹 이후 생명/삶의 정치

This paper examines the COVID-19 pandemic through the lenses of immunity and vulnerability, delving into contemporary biopolitics and its social and political ramifications. The pandemic has not only been a public health crisis but has also exposed and intensified socio-political and economic inequalities, underlining vulnerabilities associated with neoliberal globalization and biomedicalization. Neoliberal policies have weakened public health systems and exacerbated health inequalities, resulting in an immune crisis that has accelerated the spread of COVID-19. Drawing on the theories of Roberto Esposito, Judith Butler, Henk ten Have, and Didier Fassin, this paper reinterprets the intersection of immunity and vulnerability, highlighting the negative biopolitics triggered by the crisis and exploring the potential for a shift toward affirmative biopolitics. By leveraging the interconstitutive approach of modern immunology, it proposes moving beyond traditional self-defense-based concepts of immunity towards a new direction for affirmative biopolitics. This new approach aims to foster social solidarity and community formation in the post-pandemic world, advocating for an inclusive and interdependent “politics of life” that acknowledges and embraces human vulnerability.

Israeli Nonsense: humor, globalization and vegetables during the early nineties

Abstract Offering an inaugural analysis of Israeli Nonsense, this article explores humor, globalization, and Israeli identity since the early 1990s. Israeli Nonsense, a particular form of humor, emerged during Israel’s rapid shift towards neoliberal privatization and globalization. Influenced by the growing popularity of standup comedy and the rise of new commercial television channels, it became a distinctive humor style in an era marked by optimism and “normalization.” It quickly formed nostalgic classics, leaving a lasting impact on contemporary Israeli humor. Through interviews, newspaper excerpts, and sketch analysis, we identify five key attributes of Israeli Nonsense: (1) improvisation, (2) linguistic humor, (3) physical humor, (4) nostalgia, and (5) non-politicization. By challenging existing interpretations of 1990s Israeli culture and nonsense as “elitist” with anti-national and non-ideological tendencies, we highlight the popular manifestations of Israeli Nonsense to demonstrate that this distinct humor did not adopt a consciously critical and cynical stance towards society and culture but embodied an optimistic and empathetic attitude toward local identity in the age of globalization.

The natural outcome of neoliberal globalism and the experience of empirical forecasting of the macroeconomic consequences of the special military operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Ukraine

Subject. This article discusses the issues of economic confrontation between Russia and the NATO bloc and the problems of implementing a new model of economic growth. Objectives. The article aims to develop an optimal mechanism for the implementation of the economic, resource, human, and intellectual potential of Russia, capable of ensuring the military security of the State and the implementation of plans for the development of the country. Methods. For the study, we used the general scientific research methods. Results. The article finds that an optimal, harmonious combination of elements of State capitalism and a mobilization economy only, as well as an increase in the contribution of small and medium-sized businesses to the development of the regions of Russia and the country as a whole, can become the basis of a promising model of economic growth. Conclusions. Contrary to pessimistic forecasts, Russia is confidently overcoming the sanctions pressure.

A return of dominant paradigm in China: making Alibaba a development solution for rural China and the globe

ABSTRACT In 2011, Alibaba launched the Taobao Villages initiative, which enables rural e-commerce and connects rural sellers with urban buyers, highlighting the role of e-commerce platforms in reducing rural poverty. This approach was later integrated into national rural development policies. As the Digital Silk Road initiative progresses and Alibaba expands globally, Taobao Villages’ development experience is being promoted worldwide. Using Taobao Villages as a case study, this paper integrates the agrarian question in Marxian political economy with critical development communication studies. It explores why rural areas’ underdevelopment is perceived as a problem solvable by digital platforms, why this development approach emerged in post-socialist China, and its potential impacts. This paper argues that the Taobao Village exemplifies a dominant paradigm of development communication, produced by Alibaba, development experts, and government officials through shared knowledge practices. It examines the texts, intellectual frameworks, and diffusion processes involved in this knowledge production by employing critical discourse analysis. The study highlights how Taobao Villages reinforce the notion that informatization facilitates marketization, thus perpetuating and adapting three mainstream rural development ideas in post-socialist China. The underlying issue of rural China’s underdevelopment, the privatization and capitalization of rural social reproduction driven by China’s neoliberal globalization, sets the stage for another wave of digital labor exploitation. Furthermore, the widespread neoliberal ideology that advocates using e-commerce to foster social development creates internal challenges and generates external pressures within China.

Vulnerability and conspiracism in the United States from McCarthyism to Trumpism

This text offers an overview of conspiracism in the United States from the 1950s to the present. Even if contemporary conspiracy mongering extends certain practices and attitudes that were already well-known at the time of Richard Hofstadter’s classic study of the “paranoid style in American politics” (1964) and Robert Goldberg’s more recent study of “the culture of conspiracy in modern America” (2001, 2010), it also introduces new techniques by savvy strategists, such as Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson, who exploit the economic vulnerability of many and the status loss anxiety of many others to destabilize the faculty of judgment of American citizens, increase polarization and suspicion between opposing camps, and weaken confidence in public institutions and democracy. This new conspiracism, we claim, serves to console the most vulnerable and turn the attention of the American public away from a forty-year social trend (conspiracy or not) which would be a neoliberal globalization that deepens inequalities and advances most often with total impunity to advance the interests of powerful deciders and loyalists—the first being to retain power and their control over narratives of power. The paper concludes with some recommendations for combatting this highly cynical and corrosive new conspiracism.

From irreversible openness to protectionism: geopolitics and international research cooperation in the European Union

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the EU’s approach to international research cooperation between 2012–2022 drawing on critical geopolitical perspectives and the spatial politics of (re)bordering. It identifies two periods which represent the EU’s shifting approaches to international research cooperation from the pursuit of a liberal agenda promoting openness towards selective closure and a focus on ideological differences, regional interests and protectionism. This shift, we argue, was prompted by the changing geopolitical environment, marked by escalating tensions and perceived threats to the EU’s economic stability, global position, security, and normative values. These factors spurred a re-evaluation of the EU’s approach to international research cooperation, and a (re)bordering of its research space. We suggest that the EU began with utopian visions about the possibilities of neoliberal globalisation, open societies and economic collaboration and ended up withdrawing to a more closed and protectionist position in response to increasing external and internal threats, such as the aggressive actions of Russia in Ukraine, cyber-attacks by China, and the undermining of academic freedom in member states such as Hungary. This analysis contributes to understanding the relationship between geopolitics, higher education, and international research cooperation, highlighting the impact of a changing geopolitical environment on scientific cooperation in Europe.

How Progressive are Multidimensional Accounts of Autonomy? Transnational Feminist-Friendly Amendments and a Critical Intersectional Relational Autonomy

Abstract “Multidimensional” accounts of autonomy offer multiple, rather than unitary, dimensions along which to measure autonomy. Such accounts are significant developments in the literature and help generate nuanced, degree-based frameworks. However, transnational feminists—those theorizing feminism in light of (post)colonialism and global neoliberalism—may raise concerns about multidimensional accounts for women in the Global South. For instance, there may be worries about the generalized focus and implicit individualism that still lurks. Sympathetic to both non-unitary autonomy and transnational feminist projects, I argue that multidimensional accounts can be salvaged from such critiques with two amendments. First, they can adopt what I label a “critical” relational framing, and second, they can include intersectional identities. Using commercial surrogates in India as an example, I show how these amendments to multidimensional theories might better serve these women of color, and indeed all persons.

Extractivism and capitalism in the era of neoliberal globalisation: development and resistance dynamics in Latin America

This article explores the development and resistance dynamics of capital in the neoliberal era of capitalist development. The context for this exploration is Latin America, the region that has been most severely impacted by the globalising dynamics of the world capitalist system, which is in the throes of a multidimensional crisis that has assumed global proportions. The region has also seen the most powerful forces of resistance to this development, a resistance led by the Indigenous and farming communities on the extractive frontier. It is argued that each advance of capital in the development process, that is, each phase in the capitalist development of the forces of production – from the colonial era of mercantilism and extractive imperialism to the era of neoliberal globalisation – has generated corresponding forces of resistance, leading to a succession of development–resistance cycles in the evolution of capitalism as a world system.

Development beyond extractivism? A reply to ‘Extractivism and capitalism in the era of neoliberal globalisation: development and resistance dynamics in Latin America’ by Henry Veltmeyer

Development beyond extractivism? A reply to ‘Extractivism and capitalism in the era of neoliberal globalisation: development and resistance dynamics in Latin America’ by Henry Veltmeyer

China’s development path, 1949–2022

China’s path is conceived as a transition from an economically underdeveloped and semi-colonised country of the Global South into a modern socialist country in a multipolar world where successive steps (modes of regulation) were shaped by China’s external environment (uneven and combined development) and a succession of contradictions and crises encountered along the way. Three phases are examined: a turbulent phase of socialist construction in a context of capital shortage and US embargoes; a phase of reform and opening up in an era of neoliberal globalisation, whose early roots lay in the early 1970s’ rapprochement with the US; and a New Era dating from 2017. In each phase, crises and contradictions saw waves of reform, involving successive joint transformations of economic structures and institutions, while each phase was anticipated in the years that preceded it, so opening up started in the early 1970s with the rapprochement with the US, and aspects of the New Era concern with innovation, green development, common prosperity and an equitable global order started to emerge earlier.

Beyond populism and into the state: The political economy of national-conservatism

This article argues that the crises of neoliberal globalisation since the 2000s have given rise to a new transnational political family that we call ‘national-conservatism’. Through a critical examination of the literature on the Global Right and the role of the state under globalisation, we contend that national-conservatism acts as an innovative model for acquiring and exerting power from the right today, characterised by an endorsement of the state’s economic role, an emphasis on traditional values and hierarchies such as religion, and a proactive, occasionally confrontational stance in foreign policy. Consequently, the paradigm of national-conservatism prompts the division of transnational neoliberalism into discrete national domains. These domains function as havens where the neoliberal elite is shielded both from foreign competitive pressures and radical demands of respective national societies. Crucially, national-conservatism garners legitimacy for this new order through its commitment to revitalising traditional, hierarchical models of national sovereignty.

Rethinking Enclosed Neighbourhoods: Vital Infrastructure for Design Innovation, Civic Engagement, and Biopower in Urban China

Capitalist processes of urbanization and privatization have produced a growing number of enclosed neighbourhoods across the world. Critical scholarship often frames these neighbourhoods as products of an overextended neoliberalism and symbols of the fragmentation, segregation, and hierarchization of both space and society. This paper expands on these theoretical explanations with a focus on China. As neither neoliberal globalization nor tradition can adequately explain various types of China's enclosed neighbourhoods, a differentiated account suggests that they have evolved in different temporal, sociocultural, and political-economic contexts. Nevertheless, they have commonly played vital roles in (re)shaping everyday environments, driving economic restructuring, transforming governance systems, and facilitating normative transformations in China. China's experiences show that enclosed neighbourhoods have been, and will remain, the everyday environments that shape citizens' behaviours, values, and social relations. They have also served, and will continue to serve, as the vital infrastructure that enables both civic engagement and biopolitical control – an irony that remains to be resolved. Lessons from China suggest that future research and practice on enclosed neighbourhoods in different parts of the world can embrace the heterogeneity, adaptability, and practicability of neighbourhood transformations to inspire design and development innovation, enhance social cohesion, and empower citizens.

After the ‘refugee crisis’ and the Yerevan Communiqué: Nationalism and empire as the not-so-hidden heart of European higher education

The Yerevan Communiqué represents a possible high-point in European responses to the 2015 ‘refugee crisis’ and the role of higher education in building an inclusive Europe. If that is so, then the post-2015 period can be seen as a retreat from the moral stance taken in the Communiqué. This paper takes a different perspective and argues that the post-2015 period reveals tensions at the heart of the European project and the role of higher education in this. Specifically, the paper argues that the rise of a nativist politics of belonging in Europe and its manifestation in European higher education is immanent in the European project itself as a post-imperial project, in the historical formation of European higher education amidst the legacies of imperial designs, intensified by the neoliberal reformation of nation/states, and the role of migration in the context of neoliberal globalisation and the problematic nature of ‘national’ borders.

The agonistic imagination: the illiberal and pluralist possibilities of contemporary BrexLit fiction

ABSTRACT This essay explores recent work of Zadie Smith (‘The Embassy if Cambodia’, 2013, and ‘The Lazy River’, 2019) and David Szalay (All That Man Is, 2016), as examples of BrexLit fiction, a term coined by Kristian Shaw to denote ‘fictions that either directly respond or imaginatively allude, to Britain’s exit from the EU’. In contrast to the nineteenth century state-of-the-nation novel, which drew upon the liberal-humanist resources of the novel to intervene in public debates, I contend that a significant strand of contemporary BrexLit reflects a crisis not simply within but rather of the public sphere. Accordingly, my case studies hit upon the limits of the liberal literary tradition and they do so precisely as a means to explore the deficiencies of the mainstream liberal response to populism. Drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s post-political thesis – the argument that the representative systems of European democracies have capitulated to a technocratic-centrist inertia based on the idea that there is no alternative to neoliberal globalization – this essay claims that BrexLit offers a generic framework for thinking through an alternative agonistic imagination; a way of thinking and writing that offers a way for redeeming an illiberal politics for progressive rather than reactionary ends.