Neoliberalism and its Critics

Undergraduate / Graduate

In recent years, "neoliberalism" has been increasingly adopted as a catchall explanatory framework (and often also critical epithet) naming an ensemble of ideologies, political economic structures, and governance practices that have arguably been hegemonic since the late twentieth century. Despite contestation about its meaning-and even its existence-interested scholars have frequently associated neoliberalism with economic phenomena like financialization, the asset economy, globalization, and deregulation as well as political and social transformations including novel state-market relations, the extension of the market logic across society, and the production of economically rational subjects. In this seminar, we will examine neoliberalism as theorized by both proponents and critics; neoliberalism as a collection of economic, political, social, and cultural practices and institutions; and the neoliberal era as a historical period of innovations, transformations, developments, crises, and events. Our survey of neoliberal theories, practices, effects, and possibilities will cross disciplinary boundaries and draw from fields such as economics, political science, sociology, law, history, and anthropology. Reading in this course will include classical statements of neoliberal thought, major analyses of neoliberalism from both historical and theoretical perspectives, and new critical scholarship.