Beyond Neoliberalism? Social Analysis after 1989

Abstract

Aim of the SeriesThe book series contributes a wealth of new perspectives aiming to denaturalize ongoing social, economic, and cultural trends such as the processes of "crimigration" and racialization, fast-growing social-economic inequalities, depoliticization or technologization of policy, and simultaneously a politicization of difference. By treating naturalization simultaneously as a phenomenon in the world, and as a rudimentary analytical concept for further development and theoretical diversification, we identify a shared point of departure for all volumes in this series, in a search to analyze how difference is produced, governed, and reconfigured in a rapidly changing world. By theorizing rich, globally comparative ethnographic materials on how racial/cultural/civilization differences are currently specified and naturalized, the series will throw new light on crucial links between differences, whether biologized and culturalized, and various forms of "social inequality" that are produced in contemporary global social and political formations.More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14775

Frictitious commodities: Virtuality, virtue and value in the carbon economy of repair

“…But the political logics of capitalism, ways of framing and addressing environmental problems, regulatory capacities of states and civil society, and the ways that nature is enrolled in value production are all constantly co-evolving. All have undergone significant changes since Polanyi’s time, notably but not only due to processes of neoliberalisation (Fraser, 2017: 31; Smith, 2007).…”

How to decenter neoliberalism in the analysis of contestation and change? Reflections on the usefulness of Foucault's (extended) governmentality approach

“…The immediate consequence of the belief of having detected an irresistible force in history is that the latter has to be ended because its explanatory force is made visible. According to Fukuyama, there was presumably no more history that could supply alternative pathways for societies other than catching up with Western modernity (Burchardt and Kirn 2017 ; Fukuyama 1989 ).…”

“…Burchardt and Kirn ( 2017 ) assert that the end of the Cold War resulted in a major reshaping of social theory and the conceptual vocabularies social scientists use to interpret the world. They argue that in mainstream social theory and research, the end of the Cold War culminated in two interrelated notions.…”

“…The transition toward liberal democracy and free-market economies were seen as the endpoint or horizon of history: there was no alternative. Second, Burchardt and Kirn ( 2017 ) claim that the changes and variations in capitalism’s organization after 1989 have shaped the directions and paradigms of social sciences which have converged around new narratives and theories of neoliberal capitalism. In particular, neoliberalism was transmuted in an unquestionable framework in which both proponents and critics became immersed.…”

“…He simply argues that we completely need to stop talking about neoliberalism and that we need to become obsessed with ourselves and the other forms of life that we are already capable of creating. Burchardt and Kirn ( 2017 ) take a more nuanced stance by arguing that there is a need to move social theory beyond the analytic of neoliberalism. 18 The contributions by Purcell, Burchardt and Kirn, Pinson and Morel Journel provide interesting entrypoints in order to conduct research without the risk of (re)producing neoliberalism’s hegemonic status or without feeding a hegemonic beast you pretend to slay in the first place.…”