Why Neoliberalism Doesn't Spell the Death of Society: Commonality, Regulation, and the Politics of Social Cohesion.
Perspectives on neoliberal political‐economic practice often frame its dominance in terms of harms to 'society'. Prominently, Wendy Brown (2019, 52) offers an account of the 'neoliberal revolution', claiming that, when 'the social vanishes from our ideas, speech, and experience', commonality disappe...
| Publicado en: | British Journal of Sociology Vol. 77; no. 1; pp. 19 - 30 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Jan2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=190817771&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 190817771 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00071315 BJS jtl: British Journal of Sociology issn: 00071315 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Jan2026 vid: 77 iid: 1 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 190817771 10.1111/1468-4446.70031 ppf: 19 ppct: 11 formats: tig: atl: Why Neoliberalism Doesn't Spell the Death of Society: Commonality, Regulation, and the Politics of Social Cohesion. aug: au: Dobbernack, Jan affil: Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK su: Social cohesion Government regulation Democracy Authoritarianism Political communication Social structure Neoliberalism sug: subj: Social cohesion Government regulation Democracy Authoritarianism Political communication Social structure Neoliberalism keyword: 'the social' governmentality neoliberalism social cohesion social theory Wendy Brown 'the social' governmentality neoliberalism social cohesion social theory Wendy Brown ab: Perspectives on neoliberal political‐economic practice often frame its dominance in terms of harms to 'society'. Prominently, Wendy Brown (2019, 52) offers an account of the 'neoliberal revolution', claiming that, when 'the social vanishes from our ideas, speech, and experience', commonality disappears, democracy diminishes, and authoritarianism prevails. The paper considers this understanding to argue for the importance of political articulations of 'society', which reveal complexities that elude nostalgic accounts of how the social has been lost. Making this case, it works through real‐world invocations of social commonality in the name of social cohesion. Social cohesion illustrates the multiplicity of objectives invoking 'society', ranging from the production of pro‐social subjects to the pursuit of resilience against shifting scenarios of social collapse. On this basis the paper problematises perspectives that either treat the social as an artefact of administrative practice or that prioritize experiences of moral purpose and commonality. It argues that such positions risk mythologizing 'society' if they don't attend to the complex circumstances of its political articulation. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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