1,720,969 research outputs found
Historicizing the Ideology of ‘the Market’
Full text linkThe concept of the market is a linchpin notion in the analysis of contemporary capitalism. This article seeks to question how the term has tended to oscillate between two problematic types of use: either underspecifying the history and politics tied to the concept or, conversely, overloading the notion with a proliferation of too many meanings and applications. As a way to chart an alternative approach which can objectify and critique some of these patterns, this paper re-excavates the notion of ‘the market’ through a historicization of its ideological production and consumption. In particular, the argument brings political economy scholarship into a conversation with theoretical advances in the analysis of ideology, notably Michael Freeden’s so-called ‘morphological approach’. The article illuminates not only past usage patterns but also how the potency of the expression has been refreshed within recent decades associated with neoliberalism. In this way, through a dissection of this master category, the article also aims to contribute to identifying more precisely what is new in the neoliberal ideological ecosystem
Neoliberalism: The Key Concepts
No full textNeoliberalism: The Key Concepts provides a critical guide to a vocabulary that has become globally dominant over the past forty years. The language of neoliberalism both constructs and expresses a particular vision of economics, politics, and everyday life. Some find this vision to be appealing, but many others find the contents and implications of neoliberalism to be alarming.Despite the popularity of these concepts, they often remain confusing, the product of contested histories, meanings, and practices. In an accessible way, this interdisciplinary resource explores and dissects key terms such as:Capitalism;Choice;Competition;Entrepreneurship;Finance;Flexibility;Freedom;Governance;Market;Reform;Stakeholder;State.Complete with an introductory essay, cross-referencing, and an extensive bibliography, this book provides a unique and insightful introduction to the study of neoliberalism in all its forms and disguises
Uncovering Symbolic Power Power Analysis, Southern Countries, and the world Trade Organization
No full textEThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Uncovering the City of London Corporation: Territory and Temporalities in the New State Capitalism
Full text linkThe heterogenous literature on the ‘new state capitalism’ has provoked considerable academic and popular interest in recent years, but also critique regarding how to analytically bolster the concept and enhance empirical understanding. This paper responds to Alami and Dixon’s (2020a, 2020b) call for a fresh interrogation of the new state capitalism through an examination of the governance of the City of London. As the largest exporter of financial services in the world, the City plays a crucial role in the reproduction of financial capitalism. However, one major deficiency in debates on the political governance of the City surrounds the role of sub-state institutions. Remarkably, with limited exceptions, we know comparatively little about the main municipal authority: the City of London Corporation. As a local governing body, it conducts all the ordinary work of a public authority. But the Corporation also has many peculiar features which distinguish it from other public institutions, including vigorous support of financial services through planning law, lobbying and other promotion. This paper argues that thinking on the new state capitalism offers a vehicle for dissecting how the Corporation operates in the service of transnational financial interests. By unpacking how the Corporation is tied into a web of relations with private finance and other historically developed networks of power, the discussion problematises two macro themes on the new state capitalism: the spatial complexity of multi-scalar state governance and the temporal fluidity of legacies of the past interpenetrating with the present definition of ‘now’
Specters of slavery in the global economy: rupturing the selective tradition in the history of Lloyd’s of London
Full text linkIn 2020, amid global protests following the murder of George Floyd in the US, Lloyd’s of London – the world’s largest insurance marketplace with origins dating to 1688 – issued an historic apology for its role in the Atlantic slave trade. This confession was a volte-face following a century of ‘forgetting’ the subject. As a foundation of the global colonial economy, we increasingly know more about how insurance enabled Atlantic slavery, but much less about how such atrocities were subsequently marginalized and, in turn, how public controversy was renewed. At the intersection between finance, race, and empire, the argument here responds to this puzzle by explaining the Lloyd’s evading of slavery as a strategic orientation, backed by intellectual, legal, and corporate resources. The article argues that the reexamining of the Lloyd’s-slavery nexus was not only the product of Black Lives Matter, but the labor of many critical agents – scholars, lawyers, and insiders at Lloyd’s – who demanded accountability. By using the concept of the ‘selective tradition’ to excavate these cultural dynamics, the article has wider implications for IPE’s understanding of the racial politics of the insurance industry, as well as how institutional memory and narrative control work in the service of power
Symbolic Power in the World Trade Organization
No full textQuestions of power are central to understanding global trade politics and no account of the World Trade Organization (WTO) can afford to avoid at least an acknowledgment of the concept. A closer examination of power can help us to explain why the structures and rules of international commerce take their existing forms, how the actions of countries are either enabled or disabled, and what distributional outcomes are achieved. However, within conventional accounts, there has been a tendency to either view power according to a single reading - namely the direct, coercive sense - or to overlook the concept entirely, focusing instead on liberal cooperation and legalization. In this book, Matthew Eagleton-Pierce shows that each of these approaches betray certain limitations which, in turn, have cut short, or worked against, more critical appraisals of power in transnational capitalism. To expand the intellectual space, the book investigates the complex relationship between power and legitimation by drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu's notion of symbolic power. A focus on symbolic power aims to alert scholars to how the construction of certain knowledge claims are fundamental to, and entwined within, the material struggle for international trade. Empirically, the argument uncovers and plots the recent strategies adopted by Southern countries in their pursuit of a more equitable trading order. By bringing together insights from political economy, sociology, and law, Symbolic Power in the WTO not only enlivens and enriches the study of diplomatic practice within a major multilateral institution, it also advances the broader understanding of power in world politics
The Rise of Managerialism in International NGOs
Full text linkManagerialism has become increasingly incorporated into the practices of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) in recent decades. To date, IPE has largely failed to examine how and why the managerial ethic has weaved itself into the fabric of prominent INGOs that have a stake in the global economy. The limited IPE literature that has addressed such activity has either cast such changes as part of a culture of professionalisation or as an outgrowth of neoliberalism. This article seeks to question these readings by directly dissecting how managerialism operates within a milieu which has been historically critical of capitalism. The argument is underpinned by conceptual insights from critical management studies, particularly how managerialism is associated with instrumental rationality and control. In relation to international development policy, the article examines the major macro institutional and ideological factors that have encouraged the spread of managerialism. To deepen our understanding of these trends, the article offers new empirics on the struggle over managerialism within Oxfam GB, from a limited imprint in the 1980s to increasing normalisation from the early 2000s. The article calls for IPE to better unmask the internal politics of INGOs and, in turn, connect such evidence to wider structural tendencies
Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian and Philip Mirowski (eds), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism
Full text linkIn the context of the ongoing social ruptures generated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Biden Administration in the United States, some authors have proposed that neoliberalism has been significantly reformulated compared to previous decades or, more strongly, has been undermined to the point that its collapse is in motion (Saad-Filho, 2020; Tharoor, 2021). In conceptual debates, the notion of neoliberalism has in recent years been placed under sustained scrutiny as a reference point for mod..
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