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Tales of neoliberalism's death are serially overstated. Following
the financial crisis of 2008, neoliberalism was proclaimed a
"zombie," a disgraced ideology that staggered on like an undead
monster. After the political ruptures of 2016, commentators were
quick to announce "the end" of neoliberalism yet again, pointing to
both the global rise of far-right forces and the reinvigoration of
democratic socialist politics. But do new political forces sound
neoliberalism's death knell or will they instead catalyze new
mutations in its dynamic development? Mutant Neoliberalism brings
together leading scholars of neoliberalism-political theorists,
historians, philosophers, anthropologists and sociologists-to
rethink transformations in market rule and their relation to
ongoing political ruptures. The chapters show how years of
neoliberal governance, policy, and depoliticization created the
conditions for thriving reactionary forces, while also reflecting
on whether recent trends will challenge, reconfigure, or extend
neoliberalism's reach. The contributors reconsider neoliberalism's
relationship with its assumed adversaries and map mutations in
financialized capitalism and governance across time and space-from
Europe and the United States to China and India. Taken together,
the volume recasts the stakes of contemporary debate and reorients
critique and resistance within a rapidly changing landscape.
Contributors: Etienne Balibar, Soeren Brandes, Wendy Brown, Melinda
Cooper, Julia Elyachar, Michel Feher, Megan Moodie, Christopher
Newfield, Dieter Plehwe, Lisa Rofel, Leslie Salzinger, Quinn
Slobodian
Tales of neoliberalism's death are serially overstated. Following
the financial crisis of 2008, neoliberalism was proclaimed a
"zombie," a disgraced ideology that staggered on like an undead
monster. After the political ruptures of 2016, commentators were
quick to announce "the end" of neoliberalism yet again, pointing to
both the global rise of far-right forces and the reinvigoration of
democratic socialist politics. But do new political forces sound
neoliberalism's death knell or will they instead catalyze new
mutations in its dynamic development? Mutant Neoliberalism brings
together leading scholars of neoliberalism-political theorists,
historians, philosophers, anthropologists and sociologists-to
rethink transformations in market rule and their relation to
ongoing political ruptures. The chapters show how years of
neoliberal governance, policy, and depoliticization created the
conditions for thriving reactionary forces, while also reflecting
on whether recent trends will challenge, reconfigure, or extend
neoliberalism's reach. The contributors reconsider neoliberalism's
relationship with its assumed adversaries and map mutations in
financialized capitalism and governance across time and space-from
Europe and the United States to China and India. Taken together,
the volume recasts the stakes of contemporary debate and reorients
critique and resistance within a rapidly changing landscape.
Contributors: Etienne Balibar, Soeren Brandes, Wendy Brown, Melinda
Cooper, Julia Elyachar, Michel Feher, Megan Moodie, Christopher
Newfield, Dieter Plehwe, Lisa Rofel, Leslie Salzinger, Quinn
Slobodian
The extraordinary shift in conduct and orientation-among companies,
governments, and individuals-generated by financialization. The
hegemony of finance compels a new orientation for everyone and
everything: companies care more about the moods of their
shareholders than about longstanding commercial success;
governments subordinate citizen welfare to appeasing creditors; and
individuals are concerned less with immediate income from labor
than with appreciation of their capital goods, skills, connections,
and reputations. In this book, in clear and compelling prose,
Michel Feher explains the extraordinary shift in conduct and
orientation generated by financialization. That firms, states, and
people depend more on their ratings than on the product of their
activities also changes how capitalism is resisted. For activists,
the focus of grievances shifts from the extraction of profit to the
conditions under which financial institutions allocate credit.
While the exploitation of employees by their employers has hardly
been curbed, the power of investors to select investees-to decide
who and what is deemed creditworthy-has become a new site of social
struggle. Above all, Feher articulates the new political
resistances and aspirations that investees draw from their rated
agency.
The past, present, and future prospects of nongovernmental
politics-political activism that withdraws from traditional
government but not from the politics associated with governing. To
be involved in politics without aspiring to govern, without seeking
to be governed by the best leaders, without desiring to abolish all
forms of government: such is the condition common to practitioners
of nongovernmental politics. Whether these activists concern
themselves with providing humanitarian aid, monitoring human rights
violations, protecting the environment, educating consumers, or
improving the safety of workers, the legitimacy and efficacy of
their initiatives demand that they forsake conventional political
ambitions. Yet even as they challenge specific governmental
practices, nongovernmental activists are still operating within the
realm of politics.Composed of scholarly essays on the challenges
and predicaments facing nongovernmental activism, profiles of
unique and diverse NGOs (including Memorial, Global Exchange, World
Vision, and Third World Network), and interviews with major
nongovernmental actors (Gareth Evans of International Crisis Group,
Anthony Romero of the ACLU, Rony Brauman of Medecins sans
Frontieres, and Peter Lurie of Public Citizen, among others), this
book offers a groundbreaking survey of the rapidly expanding domain
of nongovernmental activism. It examines nongovernmental activists'
motivations, from belief in the universality of human rights to
concerns over the fairness of corporate stakeholders' claims, and
explores the multiple ways in which nongovernmental agencies
operate. It analyzes the strategic options available and focuses on
some of the most remarkable sites of NGO action, including borders,
disaster zones, and the Internet. Finally, the book analyzes the
conflicting agendas pursued by nongovernmental advocates-protecting
civil society from the intrusions of governments that lack
accountability or wresting the world from neo-liberal hegemony on
the one hand and hastening the return of the Savior or restoring
the social order prescribed by the Prophet on the other.
In "Powerless by Design" Michel Feher addresses Western officials'
responses to post-Cold War conflicts and analyzes the reactions of
the Left to their governments' positions. Sometime in the early
1990s, Feher argues, U.S. and European leaders began portraying
themselves as the representatives of a new international community.
In that capacity, they developed a doctrine that was not only at
odds with the rhetoric of the Cold War but also a far cry from the
"new world order" announced at the outset of the decade. Whereas
their predecessors had invested every regional conflict with an
ideological stake, explains Feher, the representatives of this
international community claimed that the crises they confronted did
not call for partisan involvement.
Exemplary of this new approach were Western responses to ethnic
cleansing in the former Yugoslavia and genocide in Rwanda. In order
to avoid costly interventions, U.S. and European leaders traced
these crimes to ancient tribal enmities and professed that the role
of the international community should be limited to a humanitarian,
impartial, and conciliatory engagement with all the warring
parties. They thus managed to appear righteous but powerless, at
least until NATO's intervention in Kosovo. Faced with this
doctrine, both the liberal and radical wings of the Western Left
found themselves in an uneasy position. Liberals, while lured by
their leaders' humanitarianism were nonetheless disturbed by the
dismal results of the policies carried out in the name of the
international community. Conversely, anti-imperialist militants
were quick to mock the hypocrisy of their governments' helpless
indignation, yet certainly not prepared to demand that Western
powers resort to force.
Are we still in this "age of the international community"? Feher
shows that with NATO's intervention in Kosovo, both liberal and
radical activists suddenly found their mark: the former welcomed
the newfound resolve of their governments, while the latter
condemned it as the return of the imperialist "new world order."
For Western leaders, however, the war against Serbia proved an
accident rather than a turning point. Indeed, less than a year
later, their indifference to the destruction of Chechnya by Russian
troops suggested that the discursive strategy exposed in "Powerless
by Design" might remain with us for quite some time.
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