Latest Blog Posts
-
Anti-politics and the illusions of neoliberalism
We live in anti-political times. After a twentieth century in which Western societies experienced the rise and entrenchment of mass representative institutions, where hundreds of millions of people accepted that politics was the main way to have their social interests advanced, these arrangements have ever more obviously fallen into disrepair, decay and even frank breakdown. […]
-
Call for papers: Gramsci workshop for research students
I am currently helping to organise a graduate workshop at the University of Sydney, exploring the work of Antonio Gramsci. All research students, whether based in Australia or overseas, are welcome to submit an abstract for a paper. The call for papers follows below. On ‘heroic fury’ and questions of method in Antonio Gramsci FRIDAY […]
-
Anti-politics, movements & the practical critique of the state
In November I co-organised (with Tad Tietze) a panel discussion on ‘Anti-politics, social movements & the practical critique of the state’ at the London Historical Materialism Journal conference. It featured three papers (abstracts below) and you can hear the audio of them at Left Flank. Our sincere thanks go to the conference organisers and to the critical but enthusiastic people […]
-
Klein’s ‘shock doctrine’ thesis & the Whitlam dismissal
Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine (2007) is one of the most widely read critical accounts of neoliberalism. Klein argues that governments have used ‘disasters’ of various kinds to implement neoliberal policies. Transformation occurs through ‘eventful temporality’, where moments of ‘coups, crisis, and shocks…usher in neoliberal policies’ transforming ‘existing modes of public administration and resource allocation’ […]
-
Neoliberalism’s Dominant Narrative
Use of the term ‘neoliberalism’ is widespread in the social sciences. While debates have raged since the 2008 economic crisis as to whether neoliberalism persists or has faltered, many argue it remains ‘the mode of existence of contemporary capitalism’ (Saad-Filho 2010, 242). Use of the term has, however, often obscured its meaning. For example, many […]
-
Thinking through David Harvey’s theorisation of neoliberalism
David Harvey is the most significant Marxist theorist of the neoliberal era and his conceptual framework is developed, chiefly, in his works The New Imperialism (2003) and A Brief History of Neoliberalism (2005). Harvey’s work is a materialist analysis of neoliberalism, locating it in the shifts in capitalist social relations and the crisis of accumulation […]
-
For a Renewed ‘State Debate’
After a few requests, I’m publishing my contribution to a roundtable on Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin’s book The Making of Global Capitalism delivered at Historical Materialism Australasia this week. The session at the conference was presented by Leo Panitch, Mike Rafferty, Dick Bryan, Martijn Konings, Mike Beggs and myself, based on a Jacobin Magazine Book Club Seminar published last […]
-
Arbitration & the ALP: Union strength or impasse?
A class is dominant in two ways, namely it is ‘leading’ and ‘dominant.’ It leads the allied classes, it dominates the opposing classes. Therefore, a class can (and must) ‘lead’ before assuming power; and when it is in power it becomes dominant, but continues to lead. … There can and must be ‘political hegemony’ even before assuming government power, and in […]
-
Where in the World Does Neoliberalism Come From
Today my department launched its Progress in Political Economy Blog, run by the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney. My first post for the blog is on Raewyn Connell and Nour Dados’s recent article ‘Where in the World Does Neoliberalism Come From‘. *** Only days after her ‘official’ retirement Raewyn Connell was back in the Merewether building […]