Critiquing Our Unsettling Present: Neoliberalism, Capital, Governmentality (Pre-Recorded)

• In Event: Neoliberalism and Governance in the Global South

Abstract

As a phase of capitalism with a distinct governmental style, neoliberalism reveals key dimensions of power, exploitation, and subjectivity that were not as visible earlier. On surface celebrating pluralism, the neoliberal world excludes voices and forms of life that challenge its market-driven rationale. Just a few decades after imposing market competition as the main principle of organization of individual and social life, neoliberalism has brought humankind and the planet to their limits. No wonder the literature on the subject is extensive. Yet ubiquitous references to the “neoliberal” often appear as a (self-evident) adjective, conveying a wide array of meanings, important but sometimes disconnected, which only rarely get subjected to thorough analysis. And when it does, it is often along separate traditions, such as Foucauldian studies of governmentality, the Marxian analysis of capital, or the study of forms of subjectivity (e.g. Byung-Chul Han).
Our paper develops a critique of neoliberalism as part of a critique of an unsettling present that the neoliberal seems to worsen by the day. Drawing on plural epistemologies as on actual experiences of peoples violently subjected to neoliberal austerity both in peripheries within wealthier societies as in the Global South, our paper contributes to a critique of neoliberalism as part of a necessary critique of the present. As we develop our argument, we show the productive heuristic possibilities of blending the Marxian critique of capital with Foucauldian studies on neoliberal governmentality, supported on the voices of those subjected to the violent imposition of neoliberal policies around the world. In so doing, we engage in a critical dialogue with both the tendency to break neoliberalism off from the history of capitalism as with those who see no need to introduce a new concept other than capital itself. As the current incarnation and phase of capital, into which we happen to live in, neoliberalism calls for a thorough critique.

Authors

• Guillermina Seri, Union College

• Dave Siegel, St. Joseph's College