Neoliberal Subject Research Articles

Beyond the neoliberal label: A historical perspective on sexual actors and responsibility in HIV prevention in England (1986-2023).

Framed across three distinct periods of the history of neoliberalism and the HIV epidemic in England, this article conducts a detailed examination of the concept of personal responsibility and its contested uses within HIV prevention. The article questions the theoretical potential of neoliberal subjectivities to comprehend behaviours related to the pharmaceuticalised governance (or lack thereof) of gay men's sexual health, exploring the gap between theories emphasising individual responsibility and the practical experiences of gay men. The analysis draws on testimonials from gay men in oral history interviews and archival sources. The article illustrates how the pervasive notion of personal responsibility in England has been co-opted by neoliberal ideologies, leading to the stigmatisation of gay men whose sexual behaviours diverge from public health mandates. The widespread stigmatisation resulting from this ideology underscores a significant limitation in the theoretical framework of neoliberal subjectivities. This constraint extends beyond merely failing to grasp the complexity of sexual behaviours; it also reflects a lack of understanding of any other behaviour related to public health. Therefore, the article concludes by advocating the necessity of employing and constructing alternative theoretical frameworks to comprehend the pharmaceutical governance or lack thereof of gay men's sexual health. Through a concise autoethnography of the authors' pharmaceutical sexual health governance, the article introduces the concept of biocommesuration as an illustrative analysis that transcends the limitations of neoliberal subjectivities.

Becoming “Global” in Higher Education: Positioning and Agency in Young People’s Language Biographies

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the discursive construction of a “global persona” made by undergraduates ending an internationalised degree. By means of two case studies, we analyse their positioning regarding the university’s diverse definitions of “globality” and “global personae” as they emerge in institutional webpages. We look into how students’ (mis)alignments with those definitions are shaped by academic expectations and choices, and the material conditions they enjoy. Multilingualism plays an important role in these definitions, along with features assigned to neoliberal subjectivities. Results indicate that there are many ways of “being global.” While one of the participants orientates herself towards a “global persona” as internationally mobile, the other aspires to remain locally while being able to interact with people from different cultural backgrounds. Results may prove useful in informing internationalised universities and degrees in Europe in terms of images projected to prospective students and how internationalisation is experienced by undergraduates.

Constructing the ‘good Muslim girl’: hegemonic and pariah femininities in the British Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) agenda

Since the rise of Islamic State (IS) in 2014, British Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) policy, Prevent, has increasingly focused on the appeal of jihadist ideology to Muslim girls. This article considers the case of the Bethnal Green girls, who migrated to IS territory in February 2015. Using the concepts of hegemonic and pariah femininities, it shows how gender intersects with religion, race, and class in British PVE to construct the ’good Muslim girl’ as both an aspirational figure that young Muslim women should seek to emulate and the norm against which signs of radicalisation can be measured. The article concludes that the articulation of this neoliberal subject via PVE is deeply problematic in theory and practice: gendering the ‘signs’ of radicalisation, offering neoliberal solutions that fail to account for intersectional structural oppressions and disciplining pariah Muslim femininities in excessive ways.

“Looking like a boarding school student”: the construction of unequal personhood in language policy in education

Abstract The purpose of this article is to analyze the construction of unequal personhood in the institutional logics for the implementation of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) policy. I build on the theories of figures of personhood and figured worlds to discuss how institutions (public schools) use multiple semiotic resources to characterize students’ diverse personality traits that reproduce neoliberal subjectivities shaping their EMI policies. The data for this article are drawn from ethnographic observations and interviews with the teachers from two Nepali public schools that have recently introduced a segregated EMI policy. The analysis of data shows that EMI schools use ‘śikṣita’, ‘sabhya’ and ‘yogya’ personality traits to justify the relevance of EMI policy to produce the educated person. The construction of such person types is shaped by sociocultural and political-economic ideologies and build unequal personhood, reinforcing neoliberal subjecthood and epistemic injustice. My recommendation is that we need to pay attention to examining how language policies in education construct unequal personhood by assigning, imposing, and imaging discriminatory personality traits which remain as the foundation of social injustice.

The agency of “doing something”: Ethnographic research on subject positions at predominantly White institutions

AbstractA small elite liberal arts college in the northeastern United States provides a context for the promotion and proliferation of a discourse of diversity, equity, and inclusion. This article considers projects emergent from a summer research fellowship offered to groups of faculty members and students. We compare the ways in which the group of students led by us and the group of students led by another set of faculty developed questions and explored aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We show that the other group began their efforts by foregrounding work on the production of inequality but ended up with a rather neoliberal subjectivity focused on the exploration of the self and one's feelings. Our group managed to avoid such an outcome, but, unlike the other group, our work got passed over for promotion on the College's website. Our insights seek to provide a context for the transformation of calls to “do something” in the academic institution in which we work into depoliticized representations of difference ripe for institutional display and promotion.

Tumačenje neoliberalizma sa Fukoom i Lakanom - fantazam, depresija i preduzetnička subjektivnost

The article is dedicated to the construction of a unique theoretical framework aimed at understanding the phenomenon of neoliberalism. In this regard, we primarily rely on the conceptual framework of the governmentality theory, which originates from the work of Michel Foucault. For a better understanding of how neoliberalism interpellates individuals, we will complement the conceptual framework with Lacanian psychoanalysis. We will demonstrate how such a synthesis allows for overcoming the conceptual gap that exists in the governmentality theory between the rationality of governmental regimes and the subjectivity of individuals. We will apply the theoretical synthesis of the governmentality theory and Lacanian psychoanalysis to understand how the neoliberal regime mobilizes subjects into appropriate forms of action, inducing them to adopt the model of subjectivity that Foucault calls homo economicus. Finally, we will examine the phenomenon of depression and show how our theoretical framework can establish a connection between neoliberalism, neoliberal subjectivity, and depression as a mental disorder.

Discourses of Covid-19 and the Political: Introduction to the Special Issue

The contributions in this special issue explore the intersection of discourse, crises and the political during the Covid-19 pandemic. By focusing on ‘the political’, the contributors go beyond understandings of ‘politics’ as procedures and processes of decision-making. Instead, they explore the nuanced ways in which pandemic discourses shape struggles over the normalised socio-political order and its legitimate subjects. By adopting diverse theoretical perspectives on the political, ranging from governmentality to poststructuralist theory, and by employing traditions from different disciplines such as political theory, sociology, anthropology, or media-aesthetics, the articles scrutinise pandemic discourses in various regions, including in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Ghana, Estonia and the Polish-German border region. The contributions highlight how discourses of the Covid-19 pandemic construct, stabilise and re-configure political identities,subjectivities and normalities within pandemic societies. They show that pandemic discourses allow for a recognition of shared vulnerabilities, while simultaneously perpetuating inequalities and reinforcing established neoliberal subjectivities, such as the ‘responsible subject’. The articles compiled in the special issue offer critical insights into thecomplex dynamics of pandemic discourses and put a spotlight on how societies are (re-)imagined during times of crisis.

Disability and Superability: The Spectacle of Extra/Ordinary Bodies in Maxine Hong Kingston’s Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book

Abstract This essay explores how Maxine Hong Kingston’s Tripmaster Monkey (1989) showcases and anticipates cultural imaginaries surrounding Asian bodies as repositories for fantasy and affect. From the fragmented body of the suicidal protagonist to the spectacle of the Siamese conjoined twins, Kingston stages diverse bodily tropes that reflect racist, sexist, and ableist perceptions throughout history. The protagonist Wittman Ah Sing, embodied as a postmodern “Monkey King,” represents a neoliberal subjectivity marked by adaptive resilience. In contrast, the Siamese twins enact intersubjective connections, catalyzing the protagonist’s communal theater production. The play’s communal vision challenges the ideological norms of the “Normate” and resists complicity with global capitalism. Ultimately, the acknowledgment of shared struggles amidst radical divisions and recognition of our participation in ideological fantasies fosters collective solidarity and a radical critique of the capitalist system.

Governing failed neoliberal subjects: Representations of women’s mental health in Australian mental health policies

This paper uses Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) framework to explore representations of women’s mental health in federal and South Australian mental health policies. It argues that mental health policies govern women through neoliberal discourses that individualise mental health and illness while neglecting the social structural factors which significantly influence mental health outcomes and health equity. In a ‘self-monitoring’ neoliberal society, people are increasingly required to seek medical and pharmaceutical intervention to promote ideal personhoods, with women overrepresented in this group. The disciplinary power of the medicalisation discourse categorises women as either ideal or failed neoliberal subjects. This is concerning for social workers because neoliberal and medicalisation discourses shape how women’s mental health is represented in policy and responded to in practice. This paper challenges biomedical and neoliberal discourses underpinning policy representations and identifies the implications for social work and social policy.

“Jos et aloita, mikään ei muutu”: Tulevaisuuksien rakentuminen median sijoitusdiskursseissa

Over the past few years, individuals have become increasingly interested in investing and this investment boom is also reflected in news media content. Investing is an activity based on predictions and expectations about the future that seeks to actively influence accumulation of wealth and thus one’s own future. This study focuses on imagined futures in investment discourse and the performative role of imagined futures in the construction of financial markets and market society as a whole. The data spans the years 2015–2022 and consists of a 1.2-million-word corpus of articles and reader comments from four Finnish newspapers. This corpus is analysed using corpus-assisted discourse studies, combining quantitative and qualitative text analysis. In the light of the material, the future is imagined both from an individual perspective and from broader global or societal perspectives. Investors’ individualistic futures are mainly imagined as positive and can therefore motivate people to invest. Broader visions of the future are more negative, for example the idea that in the future society will not afford to pay pensions, which in turn requires the individual to prepare through investing. The investor is predominantly seen as a neoliberal subject who takes responsibility and is able to influence their own future.

The simultaneous atomisation and massification of neoliberal reason


 Neoliberal reason is often defended for its supposed radical individualism. While critics of neoliberalism are right to problematise the atomising effects of this sort of individualism, an immanent critique of neoliberalism helps us to see that this atomisation does not necessarily lead to the development of individuality. That is, I will suggest that neoliberal individualism does not make room for individuality at all. I will focus on the neoliberal tendency to constrain human activity to the ends of the firm and argue that because of this, neoliberal reason cannot create the conditions for subjects to act on their potentiality. Rather than allowing for individuality, I will suggest that the neoliberal proliferation of the logic of the firm has an effect that is instead massifying. Horkheimer and Adorno’s critique of capitalism in their chapter on the culture industry helps us to understand and critique capitalist massification by offering the notion of pseudoindividuation. I will argue that the massification of people occurs when they are subjected to some end outside themselves, such as participation in the maximisation of capital. When we turn to a discussion on neoliberal reason, drawing on Foucault and Brown, we are interested in how a kind of capitalist logic comes to dominate every aspect of our lives. While the concepts seem to be at odds with one another, I will read Foucault and Brown to suggest that neoliberalism is both atomising and massifying. That is, the neoliberal goal of maximising capital puts subjects in competition with one another while simultaneously subjecting them all to the same end outside of themselves. Yet, capital maximisation is not a substantive end in itself, since capital is, by definition, only a means to some other end. Neoliberal reason thus leaves subjects in a state of discontent that is brought about by the constant striving toward a goal which can never be met – more capital can always be had. Capital, by definition, cannot be understood as an end, but can only be understood as a means. That is, the neoliberal subject is not only socially alienated (atomised) but is also constrained in the potentiality for participating its own ends, and thus has no real opportunities for individuality.

Translating the pet man: the “milky puppy” imaginary and neoliberal subjectivity

ABSTRACT The term “milky puppy” (xiao naigou) gained popularity as a slang term in Chinese cyberspace since 2017, symbolizing a young, endearing, and adorable male figure, much like the perception of a puppy. This phenomenon, influenced by Hallyu 4.0 and the toshishita romantic motif prevalent in Japanese and Korean popular cultures, has led to the emergence of an “older woman-younger man” relationship pattern as a new trend in Chinese digital entertainment, particularly TV dramas. In this context, the younger, “pet” boyfriend is commonly referred to as a “milky puppy.” This article investigates the transnational flow and cultural translation of the Pet Man imaginary in East Asia, arguing that the bodily rhetoric of “milky puppy” signifies a Chinese variant of moe culture and represents the commodification of the male body. The article presents critical analyses of two recent Chinese TV dramas within this romantic subgenre, Find Yourself and The Rational Life, and compares them to the South Korean drama Something in the Rain. Through this comparative study, the article aims to identify distinctive Chinese characteristics in the portrayal of pet man masculinity in these dramas. By engaging with feminist and governmentality theories, the study explores how gender dynamics in these dramas negotiate between neoliberal subjectivity and the resilience of patriarchal gender norms in postsocialist China.

On the History of Choice: William Dean Howells and the Roots of the Neoliberal Individual

Abstract: The neoliberal individual, according to critics like Wendy Brown and Michel Foucault, treats all spheres of life as subject to utility maximization: Whether deciding on a job, a house, or a romantic partner—everything is treated according to a logic of economy. Scholars typically point to economics as the conceptual source of this subject. In this essay, I suggest a different point of origin: the late-nineteenth century novel. Taking a classic of American realist fiction, William Dean Howells's The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885), as representative for a larger trend, I show that the novel both articulates and evinces a shift in the cultural conception of the individual. Silas Lapham reorients the individual away from the liberal subject, primarily defined by property ownership, and toward the incessantly choosing entity of neoliberalism. This essay at once reframes existing discussions of the neoliberal subject and shows that neoliberal thought has long been articulated by entities other than economics—namely, novels.

전환시대, 미래교육의 방향 탐색: OECD2030과 유네스코2050 보고서 분석을 중심으로

This study aimed to explore the direction of future education. To this end, the direction of future education was explored, focusing on the analysis of OECD 2030 and UNESCO 2050 reports that envision the future of education. The research topic was the characteristics of the transition era and how education should be transformed accordingly. The research contents to explore this were compared and analyzed focusing on the educational purpose, vision for future education initiatives, and the emphasis of the curriculum to realize it among the two reports. The research method was literature analysis, which analyzes the future education report (primary data) and related data (secondary data). Two contents were analyzed in three criteria: educational goals directly related to the direction of future education, and the emphasis of the core vision (key words) curriculum for planning future education. The results of the study were as follows. First, it is assumed that changes in the transition era are now limited to the prosperity and growth of isolated individuals. Both reports would share this perception and explore beyond the success and prosperity of individual subjects in human and global understanding based on inter-relationships. Second, the OECD2030 concept of agency was complemented by the concept of co-agency, but it had limitations of neoliberal subject in that it imposes a lot of burden on individuals. The concept of common goods in UNESCO 2050 suggested the meaning of more active educational publicity by recognizing education as a right of everyone and emphasizing education in which everyone participates. Third, the curriculum of the transition era should emphasize balance and integration between the past and the future.

The institutionalisation of urban community gardens in Cape Town, South Africa

AbstractUrban community gardens, once seen as a counter to neoliberal subjectivity, are now perceived as inadvertently reinforcing neoliberal dominance, challenging the progressive goals of urban gardening. This study investigates how the state shapes urban community gardens in alignment with neoliberal principles, potentially diluting their intended advantages. By analysing policies and interviewing state actors supporting urban gardening initiatives and activists, I argue that the state actively cultivates neoliberal subjectivities in these contexts. Unfortunately, state policies and projects often fail to address the root causes of food and nutrition insecurity in urban areas. This neoliberalisation of urban community gardening diminishes their potential to act as tools for advancing food justice in historically disadvantaged communities in Cape Town. Nevertheless, there is hope in the agency of gardeners who are not passive participants in this process. I conclude that relying on the state to implement projects for a more equitable food system may not be a dependable strategy. Instead, urban gardeners must carefully select their allies to effectively pursue their goals.

Unexceptional neoliberalism and the future of work: constrained enterprise and worker subjectivities in the gig economy of India

The discourse and policy of ‘entrepreneurial development’ has been critical to the spread of platform-based gig work in India. Digital platforms introducing gig work for location-based services, are perceived as vital in providing opportunities for dignified work marking a break from informality and are accompanied by the state’s push towards cultivating neoliberal subjectivities of ‘self-reliance’. We examine how a discourse of entrepreneurial development and the ‘enterprising self’ underpins the structural conditions of location-based gig work, through an examination of conditions of work in the ride hailing, food delivery and beauty/spa sector, in the Delhi National Capital Region. Although gig work has been defined as fertile ground for enterprise culture to take root, we find that neoliberal subjectivities within it have not thrived. An enterprising spirit can only survive through a subversion of the platform rather than by working on it. Our findings also suggest that gig workers’ drive to earn more, and for autonomy is underpinned by social considerations, including that of survival and mobility for the self and families. Gig work, then, is not a radical break from informality, instead workers experience social and economic insecurity common to informal workforces, which is now reproduced through digital technology and the ‘unexceptional’ change of neoliberalism.

Rethinking and remaking “the social”: co-production, critical pedagogy, and mental health among university students in the USA

ABSTRACT This paper presents findings from a qualitative study exploring how students at a university in the southern USA conceptualize, theorize, and attempt to influence the role ‘social factors’ play in mental illness and well-being. Drawing on models of research co-production and principles of critical pedagogy, a group of 10 university students (‘student researchers’) worked with a faculty member to develop and conduct the study. The results highlight three ways in which the student interviewees (‘student interlocutors’) theorize ‘the social’. The first two – (1) via the ‘social determinants of health’ and (2) by means of theories on ‘neoliberal subjectivity’ – provide a powerful frame for interrogating hierarchical systems of power. However, because neither of these corresponds to our interest in producing knowledge for social change, we used prefigurative and speculative approaches to explore a third notion of the social, that of (3) ‘world-making practices’. We conclude by reflecting on the relevance of this project for educators, learners, and researchers seeking to deepen knowledge and theories of the social in mental health. We argue that co-produced research that draws from principles of critical pedagogy can enhance interdisciplinary collaboration and lead to more nuanced, transformative, and innovative analyses.

Beyond Verticality and Horizontality: Arcological Thinking and the Neoliberal Subject

Beyond Verticality and Horizontality: Arcological Thinking and the Neoliberal Subject

Sonoridades de posguerra en Baile con serpientes (1996) de Horacio Castellanos Moya

Abstract: Baile con serpientes (1996) by Salvadoran writer Horacio Castellanos Moya narrates a symptomatic violence due to the emerging economic order of neoliberalism during the official transition to peace. The present study attends to the novel's sonic register to show how silence, noise, and music reinscribe the memory of the civil war in a tumultuous present. Fueled by neoliberal rationality, the main character attunes to a hyper-masculine voice as a means of participating in Central America's emerging consumerist, post-conflict society. The following draws on Sayak Valencia's concept of the endriago subject—a masculine subjectivity rooted in the exercise of violence as necroempowerment—to signal the violent transformation of the main character into a celebrity due to media attention. Sound—whether unpleasant noise or melodious music—becomes a fulcrum upon which protagonist Eduardo Sosa's neoliberal subjectivity alternately emerges and is repressed by a reactionary state. The following will demonstrate how the sonorously gory scenes described in the novel resonate with the unresolved social corruption which facilitates the persistence of violence in the neoliberal present. The textual representation of silence, noise, and music recasts Sosa's violent disruption to incorporate himself into a masculine and violent postwar era.

Boxing family: Theorising competition with boxers in Accra, Ghana

Anthropologists have often conceptualized competition by contrasting it with cooperation, even when collective ends are sought and achieved by competing. This approach tells us little about the qualities of the relationships and subjectivities that competition sustains. I explore the qualities of competitive relationships and subjectivities among Accra boxers, many of whom feel a constant, simmering sense of competition with one another. Boxers describe these competitive relationships using kinship idioms, and distinguish keenly between these kinship metaphors and non-metaphoric kin relations. A sustained comparison between competitive relations and kin relations in Accra reveals how competition intertwines subjectivities and futures, rather than producing hyper-individualistic and self-interested ‘neoliberal subjects’. I thus argue that boxers use kinship as a metaphoric resource to help them navigate the fraught intimacies that competition fosters. Their rendering of competition as kinship suggests how anthropologists might theorize the contradictory nature of competitive relationships with more nuance.