ABSTRACT

Resistance conducted in ways that run counter to the repressive hypothesis will disappoint the expectations set by critical conduct. Moreover, as is explained below, the expectation of finding and sharing a critical vantage point on the present is another limit of critical conduct that is countered by the expectation of finding a critical vantage point only within the present. Critical conduct is the conduct of scholars and activists who take neoliberalism to be a proper object of critical analysis and resistance. Despite widespread disagreement over what it is said to name, amidst a profusion of critical studies, theories, analyses, and protests over nearly two decades, neoliberalism is uttered in critical conduct as the defining word of our times. So there is disagreement about what neoliberalism is and how to overcome it, yet agreement that it encompasses and defines the present.