Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 2007

Neoliberal ideology rests on the belief that open, competitive, and "unregulated" markets, liberated from state interference and the actions of social collectivities, represeut the optimal mechanism for socioeconomic development. Neoliberalism firstgained prominence during the late 1970s as a strategic political response to the decliningprofitability of mass production industries and the crisis of Keynesian welfarism.In response to the breakdown of accumulation regimes and established systemsof governance, national and local states throughout the older industrialized worldbegan, if hesitantly at first, to dismantle the institutional foundations of the post-warsettlement and to mobilize a range of policies intended to extend the reach of market discipline, competition, and commodification. In this context, neoliberal doctrineswere deployed to justify, inter alia, the deregulation of state control over industry,assaults on organized labor, the reduction of corporate taxes, the privatization of public services and assets, the dismantling of social assistance programs, the enhancementof international capital mobility, and the intensification of interlocality competition. During the 1980s, neoliberalism was established as the dominant politicaland ideological form of capitalist globalization. This, it must be stressed, is a dynamic order, one associated with mutating strateif, in an abstract sense, the broad contours of neoliberal projects exhibit a series of distinctive (or defining) features -such as an orientation to export-oriented, financialized capital, a preference for nonbureaucratic modes of regulation, an antipathy towards sociospatial redistribution, a structural inclination toward market-like governance systems or private monopolies -the actually existing neoliberalisms of today are markedly different from rheir early 1980s predecessors. Correspondingly, the stakes, sites, structures, and subjects of contemporary neolibcralization can be expected to be meaningfully different in, for example, Berlin, Johannesburg, and Chicago. These local neoliberalizations were each rooted in distinctive crises of, and reactions to, their respective, extant institutional orders, and they each signify unique coniunctural trajectories.

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015

The rise of neoliberalism as the hegemonic art of governing contemporary capitalist cities traces its origins back to the 1980s, being associated with the ascent of conservative governments in the Unites States and the United Kingdom pursuing economic development strategies based on the conventional free market ideas. Since then, urban neoliberalism has spread across the globalizing world through an increasing emphasis being laid on the entrepreneurialization of local government, the privatization of public services, and the commodification of urban space. In this context, urban neoliberalism has taken the form of a highly mobile government technology, giving rise to a tremendous variety of politico-economic regimes across the globe through processes of hybridization and variegation. This article describes the variegated geographies of neoliberalism, ending with an analysis of the recent global recession which is understood as a crisis of (urban) neoliberalism.

This essay elaborates a critical geographical perspective on neoliberalism that emphasizes (a) the path-dependent character of neoliberal reform projects and (b) the strategic role of cities in the contemporary remaking of political-economic space. We begin by presenting the methodological foundations for an approach to the geographies of what we term "actually existing neoliberalism." In contrast to neoliberal ideology, in which market forces are assumed to operate according to immutable laws no matter where they are "unleashed," we emphasize the contextual embeddedness of neoliberal restructuring projects insofar as they have been produced within national, regional, and local contexts defined by the legacies of inherited institutional frameworks, policy regimes, regulatory practices, and political struggles. An adequate understanding of actually existing neoliberalism must therefore explore the path-dependent, contextually specific interactions between inherited regulatory landscapes and emergent neoliberal, market-oriented restructuring projects at a broad range of geographical scales. These considerations lead to a conceptualization of contemporary neoliberalization processes as catalysts and expressions of an ongoing creative destruction of political-economic space at multiple geographical scales. While the neoliberal restructuring projects of the last two decades have not established a coherent basis for sustainable capitalist growth, it can be argued that they have nonetheless profoundly reworked the institutional infrastructures upon which Fordist-Keynesian capitalism was grounded. The concept of creative destruction is presented as a useful means for describing the geographically uneven, socially regressive, and politically volatile trajectories of institutional/spatial change that have been crystallizing under these conditions. The essay concludes by discussing the role of urban spaces within the contradictory and chronically unstable geographies of actually existing neoliberalism. Throughout the advanced capitalist world, we suggest, cities have become strategically crucial geographical arenas in which a variety of neoliberal initiatives-along with closely intertwined strategies of crisis displacement and crisis management-have been articulated.

2016

The Routledge Handbook of Neoliberalism seeks to offer a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon of neoliberalism by examining the range of ways that it has been theorized, promoted, critiqued, and put into practice in a variety of geographical locations and institutional frameworks. Neoliberalism is easily one of the most powerful discourses to emerge within the social sciences in the last two decades, and the number of scholars who write about this dynamic and unfolding process of socio-spatial transformation is astonishing. Even more surprising though is that there has, until now, not been an attempt to provide a wide-ranging volume that engages with the multiple registers in which neoliberalism has evolved. The Handbook of Neoliberalism accordingly serves as an essential guide to this vast intellectual landscape. With proposed contributions from over 50 leading authors, the Handbook of Neoliberalism will offer a systematic overview of neoliberalism’s origins, political implications, social tensions, spaces, natures and environments, and aftermaths in addressing ongoing and emerging debates. Numerous books have been published on neoliberalism, including important edited volumes, but none of these contributions have attempted to bring the diverse scope and wide-ranging coverage that we plan to incorporate here. Most of the edited volumes and monographs on neoliberalism that have been published to date have a very specific thematic focus, either on particular empirical case studies, or alternatively attempt to wrestle with a specific theoretical concern. In contrast, the Routledge Handbook of Neoliberalism aims to provide the first comprehensive overview of the field. With authors working at institutions around the world, the Handbook of Neoliberalism will offer a thorough examination of how neoliberalism is understood by social scientists working from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Our goal is to advance the established and emergent debates in a field that has grown exponentially over the past two decades, coinciding with the meteoric rise of neoliberalism as a hegemonic ideology, state form, policy and program, and governmentality. In short, the Handbook of Neoliberalism will intervene by both outlining how theorizations of neoliberalism have evolved and by exploring new research agendas that we hope will inform policy making and activism. The Handbook of Neoliberalism will include a substantive introductory chapter and seven main thematic sections. By presenting a comprehensive examination of the field, this edited volume will serve as an invaluable resource for undergraduates, graduate students, and professional scholars alike. We envision the book as both a teaching guide and a reference for human geographers, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, heterodox economists, and others working on questions of neoliberalism and its multifarious effects.

Journal of Economic Geography , 2008

palgrave macmillan * Selection and editorial matter

This paper reviews the concept of neoliberalism and shows that the literature on neoliberalism has several basic problems of imprecision and over-reach. It then examines whether we can generally consider cities to have become neoliberal, and shows there that the neoliberalism literature has introduced substantial confusion into our understanding of changes in urban policy, urbanization and urban management. It argues that the neoliberalist literature suffers from theoretical weakness, normative bias, and an absence of rigorous empirical research.

Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 2016