Genealogies of Neoliberalism

Issue Number 112

"Neoliberalism" is a term that is often invoked, but too often insufficiently historicized or interrogated. Neoliberalism's advocates naturalize it as non-ideological and inevitable while occluding the constructed nature of the movement. Its opponents too often naturalize neoliberalism as well by using the term as a catch-all that carries little explanatory power. However, the current financial implosion, subsequent recession, and the policy responses to both, show the need for a new historical inquiry into the political, economic, and cultural problem of neoliberalism. This issue of the Radical History Review works in a revelatory mode to make plain the violence behind neoliberalism's "what goes without saying" and make clear the dramatic interventions that created neoliberalism's discursive dominance. In particular, given the opaqueness of the responses to our new crises of capitalism--and the way in which such responses have continued to massively redistribute wealth upwards in the United States and globally--we believe that it is particularly incumbent upon scholars to examine the historic and current strategies of expertise (institutional and otherwise) that limit democratic social participation and advance the project of neoliberalism.

Thus, we seek projects from multiple disciplinary perspectives which argue for neoliberalism as a useful category of historical analysis--projects which overcome "neoliberalism" as an empty signifier and which seek to lay bare the concealment that is often constitutive of the entire project itself. Prominent cultural and intellectual movements have laid the groundwork for neoliberal hegemony. Social management institutions such as universities and social work agencies, and disciplines such as public health, medicine, and psychiatry, are implicated in the process of neoliberal consensus and practice. Instead of reinforcing the movement's naturalization we are soliciting projects that attempt to show the plural and contradictory genealogies of neoliberalism. These genealogies should seek to ground the movement geographically, temporally, culturally, intellectually, and/or institutionally.

Some suggested topical fields include:

-Projects which examine the roots of neoliberalism in nineteenth-century liberalism, twentieth-century liberalism, and neoconservatism
-Roles of medicine, public health, and other social management strategies in consolidating neoliberal consensus
-Historical continuities and discontinuities between liberalism and neoliberalism
-The role of cultural factors (entertainment, education, the arts, and others) in the creation of neoliberal common sense.
-Projects which examine neoliberalism's relationship to globalization
-The extent to which neoliberalism should be seen as transnational, international, national, or anti-national in theorization and practice
-The role of international law and agreements in planning neoliberalism
-Histories of neoliberalism in post-colonial and post-Soviet contexts
-Histories which examine Third World strategies of cooptation and resistance
-The effect of neoliberalism on the public, intellectual, and cultural commons
-The multiplicity of neoliberalism's geographical roots in Latin America, Asia, the United States, and Europe
-Projects that interrogate intersections between modernity, colonialism, and neoliberalism
-The role of academia and academics in the creation of cultures of neoliberal expertise
-Neoliberalism's impact on higher education
-The relationships between neoliberalism and U.S. liberalism/conservatism
-The role of the normative family in neoliberal ideology and practice
-Projects which interrogate and attempt to destabilize the naturalized categories that are at the normative base of neoliberalism
-The importance of racial formations in neoliberal reforms
-Histories of neoliberal urban planning/design/reform
-The role of crises in the continuity (or discontinuity) of neoliberalism
-The lack of popular understanding of neoliberalism as a discourse in the United States
-Resistance to neoliberalism in the U.S. and globally
-The global role of 1968 in the history of neoliberalism

The editors of this special edition invite contributions that explore these or any other themes which relate to the genealogies of neoliberal expertise. We welcome traditional monographic articles as well as short reports, political commentary, documents, book reviews, photo essays, art, illustrations, interviews, and teaching resources. RHR solicits contributions from activists and academics.

Procedures for submission of articles:
Preliminary inquiries may be sent to any of the issue editors: Mark Soderstrom (mark.soderstrom@esc.edu); Jason Stahl (stah0064@umn.edu); or Heidi Tinsman (hetinsma@uci.edu). By June 15, 2010, please submit a 1-2 page abstract summarizing the article as an attachment to contactrhr@gmail.com with "Issue 112 abstract submission" in the subject line. By July 15 authors will be notified whether they should submit a full version of their article for peer review. The due date for complete articles is November 1, 2010. Articles should be submitted electronically with "Issue 112 submission" in the subject line. For artwork, please send low resolution digital files (totaling less than 2 MB in size) to contactrhr@gmail.com If chosen for publication it will be required that you send high resolution image files (JPG or TIF files at a minimum of 300 dpi) along with permissions to reprint all images. Those articles selected for publication after the peer review process will be included in issue 112 of the Radical History Review, scheduled to appear in Winter 2012.

Abstract Deadline: June 15, 2010

Email:contactrhr@gmail.com