Theorizing Neoliberalism and Race: An Articulated Racial Project Framework

• In Event: 35.050 - Critical Approaches to Analyzing Race and Ethnicity in Education

Abstract

Objectives or Purposes
Education has been a key site for the intersection of racism and neoliberalism. But what is the nature of this intersection? Has neoliberal hegemony brought about a significant rupture with previous racial regimes—a “new racism” (Giroux, 2003) or “racisms without racism” (Goldberg, 2009)? Or does the current racial-neoliberal hegemony in the U.S. represent a re-articulation, a recombination of pre-existing elements in new formations? Our answers to such questions can facilitate better theorizing and better strategizing about interventions that can help dismantle oppressive configurations and reconfigure more racially progressive formations.
In this paper, I theorize the relationship between race and neoliberalism, building upon insights from Stuart Hall’s (Grossberg, 1996; Slack, 1996) theory of articulation and Omi and Winant’s (1994) racial formation theory. I will begin with a brief discussion of the theory of articulation and racial formation theory. I then develop an articulated racial project framework, situate neoliberalism within the framework, and end by arguing for the importance of the new framework for racial scholarship.

Perspective(s) or Theoretical Framework
The two major theoretical frameworks that I will be drawing from are the theory of articulation and racial formation theory. Articulation refers to the connections between elements that make up both the macro-level workings of structures, institutions, and dominant ideologies and the micro-level workings of individual actions, interests, ideologies, and identities (Grossberg, 1996; Hall, 1987; Slack, 1996).
Racial formation is “the sociohistorical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed… [through a] process of historically situated projects in which human bodies and social structures are represented and organized” (Omi & Winant, 1994, p. 55). The racial project is “simultaneously an interpretation, representation, or explanation of racial dynamics, and an effort to reorganize and redistribute resources along particular racial lines” (p. 56). Racial projects are a means of mapping the racial articulations in society, through the ideological/discursive and the material/structural.

Methods and Data Sources
As a conceptual paper, the methods involved a review and synthesis of relevant theory and literature on race, ideology, hegemony, and social reproduction, which serve as the data sources.

Results and/or Substantiated Conclusions
I develop and argue for an articulated racial project framework where neoliberalism is conceptualized as a racial project made up of racial sub-projects such as colorblindness and diversity. Projects and sub-projects are structured through their articulations and are in turn articulated with subject positions such as the consumer, the “bad citizen,” and the commodity.

Scholarly Significance
Integrating articulation with the racial project allows us to more specifically theorize the racial formation process. Articulation can be utilized to better understand how racial projects come to be, what their relationships to other (previous and concurrent) racial projects are, and how they position individuals as racialized subjects. Their integration thus offers significant possibilities, not just for the analysis of the relationship between race and neoliberalism, but the relationship(s) between race and class more broadly (as well as gender, sexuality, and ability) that have yet to be sufficiently explored.

Author

• Jon Iftikar, University of Wisconsin - Madison