Neoliberal Processes Research Articles

Jeff Derksen's Citational Poetics

This paper investigates Jeff Derksen’s citational poetics in The Vestiges, and how this text’s creative practice critically examines the processes of neoliberalization in the present. With citational poetics, I see Derksen’s writing copy and comment on multiple textual forms in order to depict the poem’s role in social observation alongside its ability mobilize and array these textual forms against structures that far exceed the structure of the poem itself. The Vestiges in turn displays how the disparate materials of the long neoliberal moment and the traces of its manifold processes—from critical theory and chart topping hits to overthrown governments—can be brought to bear on the present, and specifically how mobilizing these different kinds of textual and historical matter locate citational poetics within a wider project of anti-capitalist research.

Afinando silêncios: potencialidades de escolas outras na atualidade do presente

Esse texto tem como propósito problematizar as territorializações da escola neoliberal, que se entranha cada vez mais no cenário brasileiro, gerando visibilidade às relações temporais e espaciais, não dissociáveis, de suas práticas escolares, intensificadas por um contexto de pandemia. Isso implica inevitavelmente e diríamos urgentemente pensar sobre escolas outras que desterritorializem essa lógica neoliberal e potencializem modos outros de fazer pulsar a vida, de habitar tempos e espaços outros e de constituir formas de vida escolares outras. Algo contrário a qualquer processo de reterritorialização neoliberal que intensifica e acelera as desigualdades de vidas. Com isso, não se trata de propor um modelo de escola, menos ainda, considerar a escola como sendo uma tela de computador e professores os mais novos influencers digitais, mas potencializar que outros arranjos pulsem diferentemente em nosso fazer escola na escola, principalmente na atualidade do presente. Trata-se de afinar os silêncios que nos habitam, alguns deles fortemente invisibilizados pelas práticas dominantes, e educar a atenção corpórea para perceber que a quietude inquietante, causada pelo isolamento social, pode nos ensinar algo. A saber, a necessidade de desacelerar, de ir mais devagar, de perceber que a força mortífera, caótica e devastadora de uma pandemia nos colocou para pensar sobre os valores da vida, das vidas escolares, mas também produziu forças inventivas gerando possibilidades e resistências para compor outros acordes vitais, ainda não pensados e vividos em nossos assujeitamentos. Essa composição músico-textual foi dividida em dois movimentos: no primeiro, problematizamos as práticas que decorrem do neoliberalismo escolar e, no segundo, discutimos sobre as potencialidades ao desestabilizar o território chamado escola, pensadas a partir da composição de outros ritmos escolares.

Students’ views about the purpose of higher education: a comparative analysis of six European countries

ABSTRACT Across Europe, assumptions are often made within the academic literature and by some social commentators that students have come to understand the purpose of higher education (HE) in increasingly instrumental terms. This is often linked to processes of marketisation and neo-liberalisation across the Global North, in which the value of HE has come to be associated with economic reward and labour market participation and measured through a relatively narrow range of metrics. It is also associated with the establishment, in 2010, of the European Higher Education Area, which is argued to have brought about the refiguration of European universities around an Anglo-American model. Scholars have contended that students have become consumer-like in their behaviour and preoccupied by labour market outcomes rather than processes of learning and knowledge generation. Often, however, such claims are made on the basis of limited empirical evidence, or a focus on policies and structures rather than the perspectives of students themselves. In contrast, this paper draws on a series of 54 focus groups with 295 students conducted in six European countries (Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Spain). It shows how understandings of the purpose of HE are more nuanced than much of the extant literature suggests and vary, at least to some extent, by both nation-state and higher education institution. Alongside viewing the purpose of HE as preparing them for the labour market, students emphasised the importance of tertiary-level study for personal growth and enrichment, and societal development and progress. These findings have implications for policy and practice. In particular, the broader purposes of HE, as articulated by the students in this study, should be given greater recognition by policymakers, those teaching in HE, and the wider public instead of, as is often the case, positioning students as consumers, interested in only economic gain.

Critical food systems education, neoliberalism, and the alternative campus tour

ABSTRACT While still quite modest, the body of scholarship on pedagogy related to teaching for more socio-ecologically just food systems is growing. However, this body of work is largely silent on the conditions within which food systems learning occurs. This is a curious omission given that the institutional context within which formalized food system learning happens has perhaps never been more threatened by ongoing process of neoliberalization. This article builds on the claim that in order to be genuinely transformative, critical food systems education (CFSE) must attend to the conceptual and normative complexity of the food system, while also attending to the conditions and institutions within which formal food systems learning exists. We share our experience with a modest intervention, the Alternative Campus Tour (ACT), and frame this as a pragmatic way to operationalize CFSE in a way that also serves as an opportunity to expose and problematize the conditions of the neoliberal university that undermine the promise of a transformative CFSE.

The politics of neoliberal transformation on the periphery: a critical comparison of Greece and Turkey

ABSTRACT Financialization and neoliberal globalization have increased the dependency of peripheral countries on core economies. This paper tracks the neoliberalization processes of Greece and Turkey, two neighbouring countries on the periphery of Europe. By using a comparative political economy method and borrowing from the variegated capitalism literature, it critically investigates how these two Mediterranean countries were affected by the 2008 global financial crisis, their variant responses, and the impacts of those responses within their historical specificities. The development trajectories of these two countries were similar until the 1980s, but diverged thereafter. Before the 2008 financial crisis erupted, both Greece and Turkey had neoliberal trajectories; the process they experienced through the crisis (how they were impacted by the crisis, as well as how they responded) varied; yet, capitalist restructuring deepened in both countries after the crisis. This was achieved through rising authoritarian populism in Turkey and the pressure of international institutions (both the International Monetary Fund [IMF] and the European Union [EU]) in Greece. Given that Greece is a member of the EU and Turkey is a longstanding candidate, the variances between Greece and Turkey’s neoliberalization processes and the differing impacts the 2008 global financial crisis had on them make studying the contrasts between these countries important and timely.

Flags and Shields: Muslim Socialities and Informal Livelihoods in Dar es Salaam

AbstractIn this article, I explore entanglements of Muslim sociality and informal livelihoods in Dar es Salaam. I propose that Muslim practices of affiliation deserve to be counted among the ordinary strategies that urban majorities employ to navigate the city amidst conditions of uncertainty. Building on Stephan Lanz and Martijn Oosterbaan’s (2016) work on “entrepreneurial religion,” I draw on fifteen months of ethnographic research in Kariakoo, a super‐dense market district at the center of the city. The first part of my analysis explores associational life in Dar es Salaam, combining a historical overview with ethnographic description. I explore how urban actors use affiliations to football teams and political parties to generate livelihood opportunities and to secure protection. The second part of my analysis uses emic notions of “flags” (bendera) and “shields” (ngao) to demonstrate that Muslim modes of association operate in strikingly similar ways to those pertaining to football and politics. Engaging with the conceptual vocabularies of AbdouMaliq Simone and Erving Goffman, as well as recent debates about “everyday” and “lived Islam,” this article foregrounds the interplay between religious forms and neoliberal processes of informalization as they are unfolding in African cities and beyond.[Tanzania; Dar es Salaam; Urban Religion; Muslim Urbanism; Informal Economy; Associational Life.]

Re-imagining society and childhood: An analysis of cultural politics of childhood in Turkey

Neoliberalism along with other sites of cultural, social and political life has created deep impacts on childhood. With the rise of neoliberalisation of policies, childhood has come to be defined in terms of economic utility and wellbeing of society. In this paper, we examine the process of neoliberalisation through the changing role and meaning of childhood. We inquire the role of childhood in re-imagining of the Turkish society based on the data from the document of the strategic vision of the Turkish government. We seek to track the evolving notion of childhood and roles ascribed to it. By applying a critical discourse lens to the document of 8th Five Year Development Plan and Strategic Vision of 2023, we explain how the cultural politics of childhood work as tools of creating present and future workers. We examine the shifting place of childhood and instrumentalisation of childhood in neoliberal imagination of policy.

Actually existing managerialism: Planning, politics and property development in post-1945 Britain

This article engages a long-established paradigm within urban studies: that of the transition from managerialism to entrepreneurialism in late 20th-century urban governance and the associated process of neoliberalisation. It begins from a fundamental intellectual problem; although we are well served with studies of urban entrepreneurialism and neoliberalism, we know surprisingly little of the detailed workings of the ‘pre-neoliberal’, managerial era from the 1940s to the 1970s. In the absence of sustained investigation of this period, many chronologies and critiques of urban transformation rest upon a set of assumptions which – as this article shows – are not always accurate. The article focuses upon Britain, tracing the installation of a modern planning regime in the 1940s and surveying some key features of the UK urban redevelopment regime as it evolved over the ensuing decades. It shows that much of what is held to be paradigmatic of neoliberal urbanism (public–private partnerships, urban entrepreneurialism, financialisation) was already powerfully present within British urbanism in the earlier, managerial era. I highlight in particular the dramatic post-war rise of the UK property development industry, and the new urban forms and norms it generated, as a key product of the era of urban managerialism in Britain. I relate these surprising findings to Britain’s distinctive history and political economy but I also advance arguments that are of wider relevance; around the nature and aims of governance from the 1940s to the 1970s, and how we should best conceptualise and explain processes of neoliberalisation.

Investor Subjectivities in Melbourne’s High Cost Housing Market

ABSTRACT The political economy of housing in Australia is in flux; households increasingly engage in the housing market as a way to manage social and financial risks. Addressing a lack of empirical research on household decision-making, we interviewed 40 owners and renter households in Melbourne. Participants understood the role of housing as a financial asset; this was enacted through their adoption of the position of a neoliberal investor subject engaged in speculative investment and rational calculation of risks and rewards. Renters were conscious of living in their landlord's investment. However, some participants also articulated active resistance to speculative investment in the housing market, and their commitment to the use value of housing and other meanings of home. This examination of the feelings and practices of participants within the housing market provided new insights into the ways that neoliberal ideology and financialization processes are currently shaping Australia.

Rebelión social en la ciudad Notas sobre significaciones políticas del octubre chileno

En este ensayo se proponen algunas notas sobre las significaciones políticas de la rebelión social, ocurridaa partir del 18 de octubre del año 2019 en diversas ciudades de Chile. Se argumenta que el actual escenariode movilizaciones es una respuesta al proceso histórico de neoliberalización de la sociedad chilena.Entre las características más importantes de esta rebelión, se encuentra la diversificación de los usos políticos del espacio urbano y la reapropiación subalterna de la articulación social en la ciudad. Este procesointensifica y extiende la conflictividad social producto de la profundización de las contradicciones delpatrón de acumulación de capital impuesto en la dictadura cívico-militar, y muestra el agotamiento delEstado subsidiario y de la democracia semi-soberana. A partir de un análisis de coyuntura, complementadacon la descripción de los principales ciclos de movilizaciones sociales en el espacio urbano desde lasegunda mitad del siglo XX, se sostiene que la actual rebelión social evidencia, parcialmente, la rupturadel consenso neoliberal, la politización de lo social y el fortalecimiento del poder local en las ciudades.Se concluye que lo novedoso de la rebelión social es la intensidad, amplitud y diversificación de formasy contenidos del ejercicio político de diversos sectores sociales y territoriales.

Apresentação do dossiê: racionalidade neoliberal e processos de subjetivação contemporâneos

Neste dossiê, reunimos estudos teóricos e empíricos sobre racionalidade neoliberal e processos de subjetivação atuais. Para apresentá-lo, discorremos inicialmente a respeito da ascensão do termo “neoliberalismo” e destacamos as formas predominantes de sua análise crítica (abordagens economicistas, neomarxistas, bourdieusianas e os chamados estudos da governamentalidade). Em seguida, lançando mão especialmente dos estudos da governamentalidade, apresentamos a origem intelectual do neoliberalismo e sua concretização histórica, para então evidenciar como ele se tornou uma racionalidade que institui processos de subjetivação específicos. Nesse sentido, procuramos sublinhar a tese de que a competição e o desempenho, próprios da subjetivação contemporânea baseada no modelo empresarial, atuam como norma global em diferentes esferas, desde Estados até subjetividades. Por fim, apresentamos as contribuições de pesquisadores brasileiros e do exterior selecionadas para o dossiê.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the failure of the dominant imaginaries

Este ensaio aborda a crise dos imaginários dominantes no contexto atual da pandemia de Covid 19. Inicialmente, apresenta-se a concorrência como princípio fundamental do imaginário neoliberal e dos processos de subjetivação contemporâneos para então abordar a crise de tal imaginário provocada mundialmente pelo novo coronavírus. Em seguida, problematizase o retorno ao imaginário da soberania, nacionalista e autoritário, como reação à crise. Como conclusão, o ensaio defende a urgência da solidariedade comum e vital entre os indivíduos em nível institucional, nacional e internacional como forma de superação da crise global.

Sustaining municipal parks in an era of neoliberal austerity: The contested commercialisation of Gunnersbury Park

This paper analyses a potentially path shaping moment for the UK’s public parks by analysing a pivotal case study of park neoliberalisation. Like many municipal parks, Gunnersbury Park in West London is experiencing the effects of local government budget cuts. Governance, policy and physical changes have been introduced to reduce dependence on public funding and the result is a more commercially oriented park. This case is used to better understand how the period of neoliberal austerity 2010–2019 reshaped municipal parks. The paper highlights concerns over the transparency and accountability of the social enterprise that now manages Gunnersbury Park. It also shows how neoliberalisation and commercialisation are manifested in the park landscape: free events are replaced with ticketed ones, spaces for sport are transformed into bookable facilities, cafes are taken over by corporate chains and playgrounds are supplemented with paid entry alternatives. One of the main consequences is the financial and symbolic exclusion of those unable or unwilling to pay. The paper explores who has contested the recent changes, and why. Opponents are dismissed as idealistic NIMBYs but, by refusing to accept the post-political inevitability of park neoliberalisation, they are helping to ensure Gunnersbury Park remains a public and open space. The case is contextualised by situating it within a review of new park governance arrangements across London, and by comparing neoliberalisation processes here with those affecting New York parks. Ultimately, the research highlights the pitfalls of shifting away from the public funding and public management of municipal parks.

Residents’ responses to refugee reception: the cracks and continuities between care and control

ABSTRACT Since 2015, residents in Europe have responded to the so-called “refugee crisis” by undertaking bottom-up activities in which they engage with newcomers. These resident responses—both supportive and restrictive towards refugee reception—apply pressure on governments to change protection regimes. In the Netherlands, for example, “ordinary people” join anti-migrant patrol groups that target refugees, or assist border-crossers and accommodate refugees. In this article, I study grassroots movements in which residents undertake practices focused on refugee reception in the Netherlands, and discuss the democratic potential of these undertakings. In the wake of extensive neoliberal processes that seek to “craft good citizens” and emerging forms of public action that bring perceived injustices to light, this article investigates the cracks and continuities between practices of care and control. It does so by analysing and comparing two explanatory mechanisms that prevail in recent literature to account for grassroots movements: active citizenship and counter-powers.

Hacker-engineers and Their Economies: The Political Economy of Decentralised Networks and ‘Cryptoeconomics’

ABSTRACT Research by political economists typically highlights policymakers, regulators, economists and consultants as the makers of economies. This paper foregrounds a different actor entirely, what I call the ‘hacker-engineer’ as an important protagonist in the making of decentralised digital network economies that are forged through the emerging field of ‘cryptoeconomics’ and blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies. Responding to critical literature stating that blockchain and ‘cryptoeconomics’ merely extend neoliberal processes of economisation, the paper recovers the neglected hacker culture of cypherpunk and histories of peer-to-peer decentralised networks in order to foreground concerns that depart from the continuation of economics and economies as usual. Hacker-engineers are dedicated to decentralisation as a ‘disruptive’ response to network control and surveillance, and share a pragmatist sensibility that seeks to make decentralised networks ‘work’ in order to provide informational security and privacy. While further broadening the range of agents that provide the focus for political economy research into the production of economies, the paper also draws attention to the technical decisions of hacker-engineers that attempt to reconfigure the material infrastructures of digital economies.

Municipalismo e a privatização da gestão urbana: um estudo da Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte

Resumo O presente artigo visa discutir como os processos de neoliberalização se fazem presentes na gestão urbana municipalista. Esses processos podem ser observados na privatização de espaços e nos modelos de gestão implantados, principalmente a partir dos anos 1990, quando os condomínios fechados se destacaram no mercado imobiliário. No texto, são apresentados conceitos gerais, referentes a esses processos, e seus impactos na governança das cidades. Ao longo da discussão, os conceitos são analisados no contexto da cidadania e das peculiaridades do federalismo municipalista brasileiro. Por fim, é discutido se a descentralização favoreceu ou não as políticas neoliberais no âmbito da gestão municipal, bem como nas propostas de participação popular elencadas pelo direito à cidade traçado depois da Constituição de 1988. O texto, ao analisar o municipalismo e a privatização da gestão urbana, exemplifica a discussão com casos da Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte.

The Forgotten Lives: Connecting Gender, Security, and Everyday Livelihoods in Ukraine's Conflict

Recent debates within Women, Peace and Security (WPS) scholarship (e.g., Bergeron, Cohn, and Duncanson 2017; Elias 2015; True 2015) have underlined the need to position the WPS agenda in the context of broader feminist security analysis as defined by early feminist international relations scholars (e.g., Tickner 1992). More precisely, this requires integrating feminist security studies (FSS) and feminist political economy (FPE). At the center of these largely theoretical reflections is a concern that gender-responsive peace-building efforts have too often been undermined by postwar neoliberal economic processes. This essay provides an empirical contribution to this debate, taking the case study of Ukraine as an atypical example of how WPS has been adopted and implemented for the first time during an active conflict. The integration of FPE and FSS proves especially relevant for a country in conflict, where economic austerity policies come along with increased military expenditure. The essay illustrates that the bridging of security and economy is entirely absent in Ukraine's WPS agenda, which has largely prioritized military security while failing to connect it to the austerity policies and the gendered structural inequalities deepened by the ongoing conflict.

De Aparelhos Ideológicos de Estado ao Nascimento da Biopolítica, e volta

Em busca de uma leitura teoricamente informada das transformações recentes no processo de subjetivação neoliberal, este artigo se desenrola a partir da seguinte questão: em que medida a genealogia da governamentalidade de Michel Foucault dialoga, avança e/ou retrocede em relação ao quadro de contribuições e contradições traçado pela obra de Louis Althusser? A investigação é guiada pela hipótese de que é possível ler a genealogia foucaultiana, tanto da disciplina como da governamentalidade, como um desenvolvimento concreto do programa de investigação da produção política de sujeitos definido no basilar ensaio de Althusser. Trata-se, portanto, de mapear o modo como Althusser informa Foucault para, na volta, refletir em que nível tais formulações foucaultianas podem contribuir à (re)leitura de Althusser e, assim, para uma crítica a ambos em prol de um arcabouço de análise melhor adequado à presente conjuntura do capitalismo.

The Construction of the Neoliberal Self in Belgrade Psychotherapeutic Practice

The processes of neoliberalization and European integration in Serbia have been underway for some time, and in addition to their effect on certain elements of the social structure such as the family, the economy, political life etc., their impact is also evident in the way that Serbian citizens perceive themselves and their position in this environment. Due to reduced social protection, the withdrawal of the state from the public sphere, and increasing financial and employment insecurity, individuals are obliged to assume responsibility for their lives and to engage in self-improvement with the aim of personal development and the finding of new survival strategies. Through interviews with psychotherapists and persons who have used the services of private psychotherapy, this paper looks at the relationship between private psychotherapeutic practice in Belgrade as a technique for self-improvement and the construction of the self in its clients, and then relates it to the broader socio-economic context in which the respondents live and work. The findings suggest that with regard to its clients, private psychotherapeutic practice mirrors the emphasis on independence, autonomy and responsibility for one's life and life decisions, which are typical features of the entrepreneurial self characteristic of the period of post-socialist neoliberalization.

Against gig academia: connectivity, disembodiment, and struggle in online education

ABSTRACT In this paper, we examine the process of decomposition as well as the struggle for recomposition of academic labor, which we understand as a contradictory positionality within so-called “gig academy.” Ours is a rhetorical intervention to, first of all, explicitly connect contemporary working conditions in academia to the general process of neoliberalization; second, illustrate how online education platforms (or LMS) mediate important aspects of the academic labor process; and third, reflect on how these dynamics make faculty unionizing both urgent and particularly challenging.