Authoritarian neoliberalism: trajectories of knowledge production and praxis

Abstract

This introduction to the special issue takes as its point of departure three centres of gravity that have shaped the study of neoliberalism but have also established barriers to further progress in these debates. By promoting an intersectional materialist research agenda which challenges extant ideational, modernist and empiricist tendencies in scholarship on neoliberalism, the essay contextualizes the special issue articles by outlining and clarifying key aspects of our understanding of authoritarian neoliberalism. In particular, we reflect on themes related to conceptualization and periodization, which are of importance for both this special issue but also for broader questions of knowledge production and praxis.Through doing so, we argue that there are two distinct yet connected trajectories within the research agenda on authoritarian neoliberalism: one which focuses on the intertwinement of authoritarian statisms and neoliberal reforms; and another which traces various lineages of transformation of key societal sites in capitalism (e.g. states, households, workplaces, urban spaces). Recognition of this spectrum of authoritarian neoliberal practices is important as it helps us uncover how inequalities of power are produced and reproduced in capitalist societies, and pushes us to consider more fully how other worlds can be made possible. Nevertheless, it is affirmed that we must remain open to what an emancipatory society might look like, and what struggles would be most appropriate, in and across various socio-spatial contexts.

Spatializing authoritarian neoliberalism by way of cultural politics: City, nation and the European Union in Gdańsk’s politics of cultural policy formation

“…Italy, Brasil, Turkey, Russia, the USA), producing regimes conceptualised as forms of 'authoritarian neoliberalism' (Bruff, 2014(Bruff, , 2016Bruff and Tansel, 2019;Di Giovanni, 2017;Jenss, 2019;Tansel, 2017aTansel, , 2017bTansel, , 2019. However, literature increasingly argues for the need for a more spatialized understanding of these regimes which goes beyond the focus on the nation-state to analyse a range of interacting politicised spaces (Bruff and Tansel, 2019;Di Giovanni, 2017;Jenss, 2019;Knuth, 2019;Koch, 2013;McCarthy, 2019;Middledorp and Le Billon, 2019;Neimark et al, 2019;Tansel, 2019). As one example, the impact of these changes on the politics shaping urban policy-making, and the resulting urban policies themselves, have received very little attention.…”

“…In particular, national politics in many European contexts has undergone a marked shift to the Right, producing various examples of what is increasingly termed 'authoritarian neoliberalism' (Bruff and Tansel, 2019). As a concept, 'authoritarian neoliberalism' has quickly gained traction in critical social science scholarship, particularly focusing on how neoliberal reforms and authoritarian statisms intertwine, and how this is impacting on the transformation of key societal sites within capitalism (Bruff and Tansel, 2019). However, relatively few studies have begun the task of spatializing authoritarianism (Di Giovanni, 2017;Jenss, 2019;Kinossian and Morgan, 2014;Tansel, 2019).…”

‘Authoritarian Neoliberalism’ and Youth Empowerment in Jordan

“…Our theoretical framework brings together critical scholarship on neoliberal subjectivity (e.g. Abrahamsen 2004;Weidner 2009;Harrison 2010), the growing literature on the intersection between youth policies and economic policies (Mlatsheni and Leibbrandt 2011) and authoritarian neoliberalism (Tansel 2017;Bruff and Tansel 2019;Jessop 2019). Scholars who investigate youth empowerment under neoliberalism shed light on 'new forms of agency and new forms of discipline' (Abrahamsen 2004(Abrahamsen , 1454.…”

Neoliberalism and primary education: Impacts of neoliberal policy on the lived experiences of primary school communities

“…The first focuses upon the reduction of democratic accountability in this form of public service provision (see Saltman, 2019). The restructuring of primary education, in particular in the global North, repositions that sector of education against a need to map the lives of individuals as a whole around ordered liberties that prioritise the economy or the market, through the development of human capital (Bruff and Tansel, 2018). Democratic, political rights are secondary to the efficient provision of educational services for value-driven ends.…”