Editors’ introduction: neoliberalism and/as terror

Abstract

and International Relations Department and the Critical Studies on Terrorism journal. Papers presented at the conference aimed to extend research into the diverse linkages between neoliberalism and terrorism, including but extending beyond the contextualisation of pre-emptive counterterrorism technologies and privatised securities within relevant economic and ideological contexts. Thus, the conference sought also to stimulate research into the ways that neoliberalism could itself be understood as terrorism, asking -amongst other questions -whether populations are themselves terrorised by neoliberal policy. The articles presented in this special issue reflect the conference aims in bringing together research on the neoliberalisation of counterterrorism and on the terror of neoliberalism.

Wartime, professional military education, and politics

“…This counters dualist assumptions of 'doing science' 54 and speaks to 'a repositioning of academic writing' 55 by underscoring the potential 'for experiencefocused and narrative contributions' to critical projects. 56 A goal was not to tell students what to write, but to empower students by connecting reading academic literature with their own positionality in security/insecurity relations, whether as students, soldiers, parents, or other self-identifier of their choosing.…”

“…Mediums such as narrative are also one way to bring in what Lisle explains as vulnerability to foster 'multiple ways of knowing, foregrounds empathic modes of encounter, nurtures skepticism toward confident claims of progress, encourages solidarity, and cultivates modesty about its own capacities for political intervention'. 58 Commitments to 'the politicality of everyday life' 59 provide one means through which to consider the consequences of wartime differently. Such pedagogical decisions may be in opposition to more traditional status-quo environments, but such opposition also presents an energized opening to critical engagement.…”

Critical terrorism studies, victimisation, and policy relevance: compromising politics or challenging hegemony?

“…It is under the economic conditions of neoliberalism that we have seen a concomitant expansion of victim rights and more pervasive, imaginative forms of counterterrorism and security. In exploring how we might understand neoliberalism itself as a form of terrorism by considering the harmful effects neoliberal policies have had on populations (Poynting and Whyte 2012;Heath-Kelly, Baker-Beall, and Jarvis 2015), critical research has opened up the field of terrorism studies to new lines of inquiry. However, this may have had the unintended consequence of leading some critical scholars to avoid victim politics altogether for fear of inevitable co-option by conservative agendas or of simply being ignored for not signalling more punitive responses.…”

Gendered Choices: Examining the Mechanics of Mobile and Online Girl Games

“…The term neoliberal in this context functions in accordance with its development in the humanities and social sciences as a framework through which to understand economic, political, and cultural developments that have been particularly prevalent in the U.S. since the 1980s (see Brown 2015; Duménil and Lévy 2011; Giroux 2008; Hall 2011; Harvey 2005; Peck 2010). The leading cultural accounts of neoliberalism from which I draw read it as a means by which the individuation of citizens is used to amplify their consumption of commodities and their roles as, themselves, branded commodities (see Duggan 2003; Gane 2015; Giroux 2004, 2005; Heath-Kelly et al 2015; Imre 2009; Newman and Giardina 2011). Nurturing the player’s ability to navigate neoliberalism has the potential to become more important in the context of the games than the game goals themselves, as is the case in Style Studio .…”