ABSTRACT

Thanks to the rise of neoliberalism over the past several decades, we live in an era of rampant anxiety, insecurity, and inequality. While neoliberalism has become somewhat of an academic buzzword in recent years, this book offers a rich and multilayered introduction to what is arguably the most pressing issue of our times. Engaging with prominent scholarship in media and cultural studies, as well as geography, sociology, economic history, and political theory, author Julie Wilson pushes against easy understandings of neoliberalism as market fundamentalism, rampant consumerism, and/or hyper-individualism. Instead, Wilson invites readers to interrogate neoliberalism in true cultural studies fashion, at once as history, theory, practice, policy, culture, identity, politics, and lived experience. Indeed, the book’s primary aim is to introduce neoliberalism in all of its social complexity, so that readers can see how neoliberalism shapes their own lives, as well as our political horizons, and thereby start to imagine and build alternative worlds.

chapter |18 pages

Introduction

Living in Competition

part I|95 pages

Critical Foundations

chapter 1|29 pages

A New Hegemony

The Rise of Neoliberalism

chapter 2|33 pages

Neoliberal Truths and Consequences

The Four Ds

chapter 3|31 pages

The Cultural Powers of Neoliberalism

A Case Study

part II|114 pages

Neoliberal Culture

chapter 4|33 pages

The Hustle

Self-Enterprise and Neoliberal Labor

chapter 5|32 pages

The Moods of Enterprise

Neoliberal Affect and the Care of the Self

chapter 6|34 pages

Enterprising Democracy

Neoliberal Citizenship and the Privatization of Politics

chapter |13 pages

Conclusion

Living in Common