What Is Neoliberalism?

Full Tuition: $250 — Scholarship Options in Drop-Down Menu

Instructor: Campoamor | Four Weeks | Wednesdays August 2-23 | 7:00-9:00 PM ET | ONLINE

We hear the word “neoliberalism” all the time to describe our contemporary capitalist moment, but it can feel like a technical term or even a buzz word. What even is neoliberalism? According to Julie Wilson, it is “a set of social, cultural, and political-economic forces that puts competition at the center of social life.” This means that the government invests not in the care of its citizens but, instead, in promoting markets. This “new liberalism” isn’t aligned with progressive politics or people’s liberation, but rather uses “liberal” to refer to the freedom of the market. Over the course of four weeks, we will explore how neoliberalism, a concept that was invented by a group of Western elites in the 1930s, and implemented for the first time in the 1970s, has become globally hegemonic. How is neoliberalism different from “classic” liberalism and earlier forms of capitalism? We will trace neoliberalism’s conceptual origins in debates about the role of the state in relation to capitalist development. We will examine how neoliberalism restructured the global economy and, subsequently, people’s everyday lives, in the post-Cold War era. And we will connect this to how neoliberalism works as a technology of the self, rendering us individual market actors responsible for our own well being and survival. Ultimately, we are all neoliberal subjects. But what if we don’t want to be? Can we get out of neoliberalism? How might we mobilize our holistic understanding of the ways neoliberalism links us all through insecurity and competition to collectively imagine otherwise?

Classes are recorded to allow for students to participate asynchronously. If you want to take a class but cannot make the class time, sign up for the asynchronous audit option to follow along on your own. Recordings are password protected and will only be available for the duration of the class and two weeks after it ends.

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