Engaging Neoliberalism

• In Event: 41.084 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 41.084-14 - Imagining Education: Beyond the Logic and Learning in Neoliberal Capitalism

Abstract

In today’s polarized political climate, different sides tend to vilify one another and criticism of different political positions become reduced to soundbites and fragments. This situation tends to lead to incomplete understandings of complex political topics and subsequent misinformed actions. Scholars who criticize neoliberalism must take heed of this phenomena. Following this sentiment, as criticism of neoliberalism expands, scholars must not reify the term. Scholars cannot simply vilify neoliberalism; they must engage with it by disentangling the historical antecedents that comprise neoliberalism. Specifically, by paying attention to the more revolutionary conceptions of individualism contained in some strands of Eighteenth century liberalism, the contradictions of neoliberalism can be exposed. If education, and society in general, is to move past neoliberalism, neoliberalism cannot simply be discarded or wished away, rather, it must be dialectically negated by superseding its unjust elements and retaining and transforming any of its more revolutionary elements to lay a new foundation for education in a post-neoliberal world. Perhaps the most controversial claim of neoliberalism is its call for individual freedom. In order to dialectically supersede neoliberalism, this paper argues for a new conception of individualism called dialectical individualism. This is not a return to some idealized form of liberalism however, but a new phase in human history with a new conception of individualism. The dialectical movement should not be seen as the product of some otherworldly force, but rather, it should be viewed as centered in the individual and driven by volunteerism in the context of the historical situation. Students can be taught to be dialectical in their actual school work, by writing challenging papers, by writing vision statements, and by partaking in collaborative assignments, and through their understanding of history and the present.

Author

• Angelo Joseph Letizia, Notre Dame University of Maryland