Neoliberalism, crises and accusations of fraud: a vicious circle of reinforcing influences?

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to better understand why neoliberal governance is so resilient to the crises that frequently affect all or part of the economy. Design/methodology/approach – The argument of this paper relies on a macroanalysis of discourses surrounding the Global Financial Crisis. Findings – Drawing on Girard and Foucault’s work, this paper argues that the resilience of neoliberalism partly ensues from the proclivity of this mode of governing to foster, for reasons that this paper seeks to highlight, spontaneous and widespread processes of scapegoating in times of turmoil. As a consequence of these processes, crises often are collectively construed as resulting from frauds: the blame is focused on specific actors whose lack of morality is denounced, and this individualizing line of interpretation protects the regime from systemic questioning. Practical, social and political implications – Particular actors, rather than the system itself, are made accountable when things go wrong. Consequences are paramount. Today’s political economy is characterized with a proclivity toward social reproduction. While substantive change is possible in theory, considerable challenges are involved in practice in overcoming the dominance of neoliberalism in society. Originality/value – Although Girard’s work has exerted significant influence over a number of disciplines in the social sciences, his ideas have not yet been widely used in governance and accountability-related research. Anthropological theorizations – such as those proposed by Girard – are valuable in providing us with a sense of how power develops in the economy.

The role of management controls in managing heterogeneous interests during extreme situations: the Swedish migrant crisis in 2015

“…To develop an understanding of this research question, we draw on the concept of sensemaking (Weick, 1988(Weick, , 1993(Weick, , 1995Weick et al, 2005). Sensemaking is an established perspective in the accounting literature (Goretzki and Messner, 2016;Guenin-Paracini et al, 2014;Kraus and Strömsten, 2012;Tillmann and Goddard, 2008). In extreme situations such as the above named migrant crisis, explicit efforts at sensemaking tend to occur because the current state of the world is perceived to be different from what had been expected (Weick et al, 2005).…”

Mimesis, Scapegoating and Financial Crises: A Critical Evaluation of René Girard's Intellectual Legacy

“…Girard's theory of scapegoating has also recently drawn attention. Importantly, for the purposes of our argument, the neo-Marxist scholar Henri Guénin-Paracini and his co-authors claim that the scapegoat mechanism functions to sustain financialized capitalism by inuring the citizenry to the pernicious effects of financial crisis and by rebuilding public confidence in the financial circuit (Guénin-Paracini et al, 2014). Despite Girard's work being increasingly mined by Marxists of various stripes, to date there has not been a comprehensive, critical appraisal of his intellectual legacy.…”

“…We answer in the negative. This is based on our evaluation of work by Guénin-Paracini et al (2014), which rates as the strongest application Girard's concept of the scapegoat mechanism to financial crisis moments. We use Guénin-Paracini, et al as a test case to determine whether this mechanism can explain how capitalism in crisis is socially reproduced.…”

Justice across Real and Imagined Food Worlds: Rural Corn Growers, Urban Agriculture Activists, and the Political Ontologies They Live By

“…This is not to argue that everyone ought to hold the same view of justice. Privileging a collectivist ontology of justice means rejecting highly individualistic views of what is and what ought to be, realizing that they benefit few while misdirecting our attention (e.g., via scapegoating [Guénin‐Paracini, Gendron, and Morales ]) when seeking to call out the source of today's vulnerabilities.…”