ABSTRACT
This 1998 paper by Debbie Hill continues the theme of the last few chapters, in exploring the situation of neoliberalism in its emergence and evolution in western societies, here focused primarily on New Zealand. Read alongside the previous two chapters, it shows a rich reckoning with neoliberalism in its continuous unfolding, recognized by 1998 as a totalizing, all-encompassing discourse and project aimed at delegitimizing previous liberal and egalitarian orientations towards social and educational policy. In the chapter, Hill also focuses particularly on the work of Cobb (in the previous chapter) and aims at rebutting his claim that school choice is rational despite the ideological nature of neoliberal choice discourse. In contrast with Cobb, Hill contends that the new right (or simply, ‘the right’) intends to coordinate a new hegemonic discourse. This hegemony is not only ideological but also cultural. By expanding on the cultural nature of hegemony, Hill illustrates how hegemony is not simply a matter of ideological manipulation, but a broad political and cultural, coordinated system. Exploring cultural hegemony, she notes that the politics of ideology must be understood to frame neoliberal trends not only as individual rational choices but rather as a profound social engineering project with political, economic and cultural implications. This chapter gives a valuable, nuanced treatment of the concepts of ideology and hegemony as they relate to neoliberal educational policy and its critics at the turn of the twentieth century.
