Neoliberalism

Catalog description

The term "neoliberalism" is everywhere—as a political slogan, a term of analysis, and a catchall description of our present. In this course we will think critically about the many different meanings of neoliberalism and their stakes for understanding our own historical moment. The course will adopt a global perspective, thinking about conceptualizations and formations of neoliberalism across geographical and regional contexts—from the "advanced" industrial world, to the Global South, to the former Soviet Union. Students will read both theory and history, thinking across disciplines and fields of knowledge about how neoliberalism is understood, and what relationship these different formulations have with actually-existing neoliberalism as a concrete historical formation. The first part of the course will focus on contrasting understandings of what neoliberalism is. Is it a political project for class power, a distinct epoch in the history of capitalism, financialized capitalism, the commodification of the self, or something else? The second part of the course will adopt a historical lens to trace how the global capitalist system was transformed from the late 1960s onward. While learning about the emergence of a neoliberal order, we will also pay attention to the forms of resistance that have constrained and at times sought to transcend a neoliberal politics. Readings will include major theorists of neoliberalism like Michel Foucault, Wendy Brown, and David Harvey, as well as key historians of the neoliberal transition including Quinn Slobodian, Judith Stein, and Gary Gerstle.