Stephen J. Collier
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148304
- eISBN:
- 9781400840427
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148304.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This introductory chapter provides a background of neoliberalism. During the 1990s, the Russian case and the battles over “transition,” the Washington Consensus, shock therapy, and structural ...
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This introductory chapter provides a background of neoliberalism. During the 1990s, the Russian case and the battles over “transition,” the Washington Consensus, shock therapy, and structural adjustment, stood as emblems of the neoliberal project's grandiose transformative ambition—and catastrophic failure. However, the dynamics of this period proved to be both contingent and temporally circumscribed, bracketed roughly by Soviet breakup in 1991 and the devaluation of 1998. Ten years beyond the collapse of the Washington Consensus—and with the luxury of a broadened and perhaps historically deepened perspective—the Russian case provides a good site for revisiting the legacy of an important and distinctive form of social government, and for asking how neoliberal reforms propose to reshape it.Less
This introductory chapter provides a background of neoliberalism. During the 1990s, the Russian case and the battles over “transition,” the Washington Consensus, shock therapy, and structural adjustment, stood as emblems of the neoliberal project's grandiose transformative ambition—and catastrophic failure. However, the dynamics of this period proved to be both contingent and temporally circumscribed, bracketed roughly by Soviet breakup in 1991 and the devaluation of 1998. Ten years beyond the collapse of the Washington Consensus—and with the luxury of a broadened and perhaps historically deepened perspective—the Russian case provides a good site for revisiting the legacy of an important and distinctive form of social government, and for asking how neoliberal reforms propose to reshape it.
Stephen J. Collier
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148304
- eISBN:
- 9781400840427
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148304.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter focuses on budgetary reform. In debates about neoliberalism and neoliberal reform, the government budget is often viewed as a key locus in which it is possible to observe the absolute ...
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This chapter focuses on budgetary reform. In debates about neoliberalism and neoliberal reform, the government budget is often viewed as a key locus in which it is possible to observe the absolute antinomy between substantive provisioning and formal rationalization. “Budgetary austerity”—understood as a key component of structural adjustment and, thus, of neoliberal reform—presents an image of social welfare goals sacrificed to demands of scarcity (or the demands of international capital markets). However, seen in a somewhat broader view, it becomes apparent that the government budget—far from being a site in which these two forms of rationalization are opposed—is among the most critical sites in which the tricky relationship between formal rationality and substantive provisioning is constituted as an explicit target of technocratic reflection and management in modern states.Less
This chapter focuses on budgetary reform. In debates about neoliberalism and neoliberal reform, the government budget is often viewed as a key locus in which it is possible to observe the absolute antinomy between substantive provisioning and formal rationalization. “Budgetary austerity”—understood as a key component of structural adjustment and, thus, of neoliberal reform—presents an image of social welfare goals sacrificed to demands of scarcity (or the demands of international capital markets). However, seen in a somewhat broader view, it becomes apparent that the government budget—far from being a site in which these two forms of rationalization are opposed—is among the most critical sites in which the tricky relationship between formal rationality and substantive provisioning is constituted as an explicit target of technocratic reflection and management in modern states.
Stephen J. Collier
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148304
- eISBN:
- 9781400840427
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148304.003.0009
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This epilogue presents three strategies for making a critical discussion of neoliberalism more effective, some of which have been taken up by other scholars in recent years. The first is simply to ...
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This epilogue presents three strategies for making a critical discussion of neoliberalism more effective, some of which have been taken up by other scholars in recent years. The first is simply to develop greater critical consciousness about dominant narratives of neoliberalism—where they come from, and what their effects are likely to be. The second strategy, related to the first, is to turn greater attention to the flexibility of many elements of neoliberal reforms, and to the relationships they may have to diverse political projects. The third and final strategy is simply to take more seriously the question of what makes a particular tradition “neoliberal”; to ask in what, precisely, its neoliberalism consists.Less
This epilogue presents three strategies for making a critical discussion of neoliberalism more effective, some of which have been taken up by other scholars in recent years. The first is simply to develop greater critical consciousness about dominant narratives of neoliberalism—where they come from, and what their effects are likely to be. The second strategy, related to the first, is to turn greater attention to the flexibility of many elements of neoliberal reforms, and to the relationships they may have to diverse political projects. The third and final strategy is simply to take more seriously the question of what makes a particular tradition “neoliberal”; to ask in what, precisely, its neoliberalism consists.
Nana Okura Gagné
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781501753039
- eISBN:
- 9781501753053
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501753039.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter explores how globalization and neoliberal economic reforms operate and are operationalized on the ground by companies. It discusses how Japanese workers responded to large-scale economic ...
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This chapter explores how globalization and neoliberal economic reforms operate and are operationalized on the ground by companies. It discusses how Japanese workers responded to large-scale economic restructurings since the 1990s. It also reveals that the ideology of neoliberalism has been co-opted by Japanese corporations and management to reengineer older corporate practices in ways that were not possible before. The chapter describes key technologies of neoliberal restructuring in the form of the performance-based merit system and massive corporate restructuring that have destabilized the older corporate governance. It examines economic reforms on the ground level through the experiences and voices of employees and managers who have been on the front line of restructuring in postbubble Japan.Less
This chapter explores how globalization and neoliberal economic reforms operate and are operationalized on the ground by companies. It discusses how Japanese workers responded to large-scale economic restructurings since the 1990s. It also reveals that the ideology of neoliberalism has been co-opted by Japanese corporations and management to reengineer older corporate practices in ways that were not possible before. The chapter describes key technologies of neoliberal restructuring in the form of the performance-based merit system and massive corporate restructuring that have destabilized the older corporate governance. It examines economic reforms on the ground level through the experiences and voices of employees and managers who have been on the front line of restructuring in postbubble Japan.
Nana Okura Gagné
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781501753039
- eISBN:
- 9781501753053
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501753039.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This book examines how the past several decades of neoliberal economic restructuring and reforms in Japan have reshaped the nation's corporate ideologies, gender ideologies, and subjectivities of ...
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This book examines how the past several decades of neoliberal economic restructuring and reforms in Japan have reshaped the nation's corporate ideologies, gender ideologies, and subjectivities of individual employees. With Japan's remarkable economic growth since the 1950s, the lifestyles and life courses of “salarymen” came to embody the “New Middle Class” family ideal. As this book demonstrates, however, the nearly three decades of economic stagnation since the bursting of the economic bubble in the early 1990s has tarnished this positive image of salarymen. In a sweeping appraisal of recent history, the book shows how economic restructuring has reshaped Japanese corporations, workers, and ideals, as well as how Japanese companies and employees have responded to such changes. The book explores Japan's fraught and problematic transition from the postwar ideology of “companyism” to the emergent ideology of neoliberalism and the subsequent large-scale economic restructuring. By juxtaposing Japan's economic history with case studies and life stories, the book goes beyond the abstract to explore the human dimension of the neoliberal reforms that have impacted the nation's corporate governance, socioeconomic class, workers' ideals, and gender relations. Reworking Japan, with its first-hand analysis of how the supposedly hegemonic neoliberal regime does not completely transform existing cultural frames and social relations, will shake up preconceived ideas about Japanese men in general and salarymen in particular.Less
This book examines how the past several decades of neoliberal economic restructuring and reforms in Japan have reshaped the nation's corporate ideologies, gender ideologies, and subjectivities of individual employees. With Japan's remarkable economic growth since the 1950s, the lifestyles and life courses of “salarymen” came to embody the “New Middle Class” family ideal. As this book demonstrates, however, the nearly three decades of economic stagnation since the bursting of the economic bubble in the early 1990s has tarnished this positive image of salarymen. In a sweeping appraisal of recent history, the book shows how economic restructuring has reshaped Japanese corporations, workers, and ideals, as well as how Japanese companies and employees have responded to such changes. The book explores Japan's fraught and problematic transition from the postwar ideology of “companyism” to the emergent ideology of neoliberalism and the subsequent large-scale economic restructuring. By juxtaposing Japan's economic history with case studies and life stories, the book goes beyond the abstract to explore the human dimension of the neoliberal reforms that have impacted the nation's corporate governance, socioeconomic class, workers' ideals, and gender relations. Reworking Japan, with its first-hand analysis of how the supposedly hegemonic neoliberal regime does not completely transform existing cultural frames and social relations, will shake up preconceived ideas about Japanese men in general and salarymen in particular.
Mari Miura
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451058
- eISBN:
- 9780801465925
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451058.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Asian Politics
This chapter examines how neoliberalism gained political currency in Japan and how the nature of the political dynamics since 1993 transformed the welfare through work system. While labor market ...
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This chapter examines how neoliberalism gained political currency in Japan and how the nature of the political dynamics since 1993 transformed the welfare through work system. While labor market reform to ensure greater flexibility was initiated by employers, the chapter suggests that it was the new pattern of partisan competition that allowed neoliberal reform to appear on the political agenda. The split and consequent fall of the Liberal Democratic Party from power in 1993 led to a new era of party politics, but the Japan Socialist Party failed to fill the vacuum. This chapter also considers the role played by two institutions, the deregulation panels and the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, in accelerating and realizing neoliberal reform as well as in transforming the policy-making process with respect to labor market regulations.Less
This chapter examines how neoliberalism gained political currency in Japan and how the nature of the political dynamics since 1993 transformed the welfare through work system. While labor market reform to ensure greater flexibility was initiated by employers, the chapter suggests that it was the new pattern of partisan competition that allowed neoliberal reform to appear on the political agenda. The split and consequent fall of the Liberal Democratic Party from power in 1993 led to a new era of party politics, but the Japan Socialist Party failed to fill the vacuum. This chapter also considers the role played by two institutions, the deregulation panels and the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, in accelerating and realizing neoliberal reform as well as in transforming the policy-making process with respect to labor market regulations.
Stephen J. Collier
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148304
- eISBN:
- 9781400840427
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148304.003.0002
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter outlines the developments against which one can understand the emergence of Soviet city-building—painting a picture of successive formations of government from Petrine absolutism to ...
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This chapter outlines the developments against which one can understand the emergence of Soviet city-building—painting a picture of successive formations of government from Petrine absolutism to Soviet total planning. In the Soviet period, the city emerges precisely as that space in which large-scale readjustments of the population's distribution and way of life can be governmentally managed. The chapter then traces the articulation and subsequent redeployment of two critical instruments of government—budgets and infrastructures. Initially developed in the state-building and modernizing projects of the Russian absolutist state, these instruments were turned—first in the late tsarist period, then in the Soviet period—to various subsequent tasks of development and social welfare, and embedded in the mechanisms of Soviet planning. Their present significance lies, in part, in the fact that they were identified as critical targets of neoliberal reform after Soviet breakup, and will thus be crucial for assessing the postsocialist fate of Soviet social modernity.Less
This chapter outlines the developments against which one can understand the emergence of Soviet city-building—painting a picture of successive formations of government from Petrine absolutism to Soviet total planning. In the Soviet period, the city emerges precisely as that space in which large-scale readjustments of the population's distribution and way of life can be governmentally managed. The chapter then traces the articulation and subsequent redeployment of two critical instruments of government—budgets and infrastructures. Initially developed in the state-building and modernizing projects of the Russian absolutist state, these instruments were turned—first in the late tsarist period, then in the Soviet period—to various subsequent tasks of development and social welfare, and embedded in the mechanisms of Soviet planning. Their present significance lies, in part, in the fact that they were identified as critical targets of neoliberal reform after Soviet breakup, and will thus be crucial for assessing the postsocialist fate of Soviet social modernity.
Kus Basak
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199687015
- eISBN:
- 9780191766916
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199687015.003.0014
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Microeconomics, Development, Growth, and Environmental
Drawing on an in-depth study of the Turkish case, and using comparative data from transition countries, this chapter examines the link between neoliberal reforms and the growth of the informal ...
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Drawing on an in-depth study of the Turkish case, and using comparative data from transition countries, this chapter examines the link between neoliberal reforms and the growth of the informal economy from a regulatory perspective. It shows that two concurrent regulatory trends that underpinned neoliberal transformations – namely deregulation and the declining quality of legal enforcement in the economic sphere – played a major role in promoting an informal pattern of economic growth. On the one hand, the legal rules and requirements that constrained the operation of market forces declined substantially, giving way to more entrepreneurial freedom; on the other hand, the state’s effectiveness in “policing” market activities weakened. This double transformation led to a business environment that made it easier to start and operate a business, but also to operate it through informal means.Less
Drawing on an in-depth study of the Turkish case, and using comparative data from transition countries, this chapter examines the link between neoliberal reforms and the growth of the informal economy from a regulatory perspective. It shows that two concurrent regulatory trends that underpinned neoliberal transformations – namely deregulation and the declining quality of legal enforcement in the economic sphere – played a major role in promoting an informal pattern of economic growth. On the one hand, the legal rules and requirements that constrained the operation of market forces declined substantially, giving way to more entrepreneurial freedom; on the other hand, the state’s effectiveness in “policing” market activities weakened. This double transformation led to a business environment that made it easier to start and operate a business, but also to operate it through informal means.
Nana Okura Gagné
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781501753039
- eISBN:
- 9781501753053
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501753039.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter begins with a brief historicization of salarymen from the late 1800s to the early 1990s. It focuses on the formation of the socioeconomic category of the New Middle Class and the ...
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This chapter begins with a brief historicization of salarymen from the late 1800s to the early 1990s. It focuses on the formation of the socioeconomic category of the New Middle Class and the cultural production of the new middle-class orientation within Japan's economic and industrial structure. It also traces the historical trajectory through which the modern configuration of welfare, work, and family emerged in prewar Japan and then took new shape in postwar Japan through the fractious struggle of workers and management. The chapter examines how the particular construction of the new middle class as a lived experience has been articulated through the socioeconomic category of the new middle class. It situates the contemporary discourse of neoliberal economic reforms within the historical development of Japanese corporate governance and Japanese capitalism.Less
This chapter begins with a brief historicization of salarymen from the late 1800s to the early 1990s. It focuses on the formation of the socioeconomic category of the New Middle Class and the cultural production of the new middle-class orientation within Japan's economic and industrial structure. It also traces the historical trajectory through which the modern configuration of welfare, work, and family emerged in prewar Japan and then took new shape in postwar Japan through the fractious struggle of workers and management. The chapter examines how the particular construction of the new middle class as a lived experience has been articulated through the socioeconomic category of the new middle class. It situates the contemporary discourse of neoliberal economic reforms within the historical development of Japanese corporate governance and Japanese capitalism.
Rosa De Jorio
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040276
- eISBN:
- 9780252098536
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040276.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
Up to 2012, Mali was a poster child for African democracy, despite multiple signs of growing dissatisfaction with the democratic experiment. Then disaster struck, bringing many of the nation's ...
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Up to 2012, Mali was a poster child for African democracy, despite multiple signs of growing dissatisfaction with the democratic experiment. Then disaster struck, bringing many of the nation's unresolved contradictions to international attention. A military coup carved off the country's south. A revolt by a coalition of Tuareg and extremist Islamist forces shook the north. The events, so violent and unexpected, forced experts to reassess Mali's democratic institutions and the neoliberal economic reforms enacted in conjunction with the move toward democracy. This book's detailed study of cultural heritage and its transformations provides a key to understanding the impasse that confronts Malian democracy. As the book shows, postcolonial Mali privileged its cultural heritage to display itself on the regional and international scene. The neoliberal reforms both intensified and altered this trend. Profiling heritage sites ranging from statues of colonial leaders to women's museums to historic Timbuktu, the book portrays how various actors have deployed and contested notions of heritage. These actors include not just Malian administrators and politicians but UNESCO, and non-state NGOs. The book also delves into the intricacies of heritage politics from the perspective of Malian actors and groups, as producers and receivers—but always highly informed and critically engaged—of international, national and local cultural initiatives.Less
Up to 2012, Mali was a poster child for African democracy, despite multiple signs of growing dissatisfaction with the democratic experiment. Then disaster struck, bringing many of the nation's unresolved contradictions to international attention. A military coup carved off the country's south. A revolt by a coalition of Tuareg and extremist Islamist forces shook the north. The events, so violent and unexpected, forced experts to reassess Mali's democratic institutions and the neoliberal economic reforms enacted in conjunction with the move toward democracy. This book's detailed study of cultural heritage and its transformations provides a key to understanding the impasse that confronts Malian democracy. As the book shows, postcolonial Mali privileged its cultural heritage to display itself on the regional and international scene. The neoliberal reforms both intensified and altered this trend. Profiling heritage sites ranging from statues of colonial leaders to women's museums to historic Timbuktu, the book portrays how various actors have deployed and contested notions of heritage. These actors include not just Malian administrators and politicians but UNESCO, and non-state NGOs. The book also delves into the intricacies of heritage politics from the perspective of Malian actors and groups, as producers and receivers—but always highly informed and critically engaged—of international, national and local cultural initiatives.
Justin Gomer
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781469655802
- eISBN:
- 9781469655826
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469655802.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
The final chapter examines teacher films, those movies in which a (typically) suburban white woman accepts a job teaching student of color in low-income urban neighborhoods. Although the late 1980s ...
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The final chapter examines teacher films, those movies in which a (typically) suburban white woman accepts a job teaching student of color in low-income urban neighborhoods. Although the late 1980s and 1990s certainly do not mark the first instances of teachers as protagonists in American cinema, it was during these years that films centered around white teachers and their inner-city nonwhite pupils became increasingly popular and developed specific themes and tropes that were inherently informed by the logic of colorblindness. This analysis of this genre is situated, most notably the 1995 film Dangerous Minds, within the context of the War on Drugs, urban blight, the dismantling of affirmative action, and, most importantly, neoliberal educational reform in arguing that colorblindness ultimately produced entirely new film genres that are inherently colorblind.Less
The final chapter examines teacher films, those movies in which a (typically) suburban white woman accepts a job teaching student of color in low-income urban neighborhoods. Although the late 1980s and 1990s certainly do not mark the first instances of teachers as protagonists in American cinema, it was during these years that films centered around white teachers and their inner-city nonwhite pupils became increasingly popular and developed specific themes and tropes that were inherently informed by the logic of colorblindness. This analysis of this genre is situated, most notably the 1995 film Dangerous Minds, within the context of the War on Drugs, urban blight, the dismantling of affirmative action, and, most importantly, neoliberal educational reform in arguing that colorblindness ultimately produced entirely new film genres that are inherently colorblind.
Ravinder Kaur
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198092070
- eISBN:
- 9780199082704
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198092070.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
This essay explores the changing self-identity of India as a nation state during the 1990s, after the introduction of neoliberal reforms. What is seen to be ‘new’ and how is it different from what ...
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This essay explores the changing self-identity of India as a nation state during the 1990s, after the introduction of neoliberal reforms. What is seen to be ‘new’ and how is it different from what was before? How is an optimistic narrative of a ‘new’ global self created within the terrain of inequity and inequality in post-reform India? The essay argues that it is through a strategy of fracture—of deliberately created ruptures which compartmentalize and separate what is deemed of value to the global economic networks from all that is deemed waste—that the newness is constructed in the popular domain. Through an exploration of two cultural events in the recent past, the essay shows how the idea of the internal other in new India is produced and reiterated.Less
This essay explores the changing self-identity of India as a nation state during the 1990s, after the introduction of neoliberal reforms. What is seen to be ‘new’ and how is it different from what was before? How is an optimistic narrative of a ‘new’ global self created within the terrain of inequity and inequality in post-reform India? The essay argues that it is through a strategy of fracture—of deliberately created ruptures which compartmentalize and separate what is deemed of value to the global economic networks from all that is deemed waste—that the newness is constructed in the popular domain. Through an exploration of two cultural events in the recent past, the essay shows how the idea of the internal other in new India is produced and reiterated.
Antina von Schnitzler
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691170770
- eISBN:
- 9781400882991
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691170770.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This book examines how residents' administrative links to the state emerged as a central political terrain during the antiapartheid struggle in South Africa and the ways that this terrain persists in ...
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This book examines how residents' administrative links to the state emerged as a central political terrain during the antiapartheid struggle in South Africa and the ways that this terrain persists in the postapartheid period. It explores the techno-politics underlying contemporary conflicts from the perspective of infrastructure by historically and ethnographically following the life of a small device: a prepaid water meter. Focusing on Operation Gcin'amanzi (“Save Water”) in Soweto, the book shows how, in the aftermath of apartheid and in a context of neoliberal reforms, many of the central questions of the antiapartheid struggle such as citizenship, social obligation, and the shape of democracy in the “new South Africa” were reframed as technical-managerial and procedural questions. This chapter provides an overview of the prepaid meter as well as the concept of techno-politics, along with the triumphalist rise of liberal democracy in postapartheid South Africa.Less
This book examines how residents' administrative links to the state emerged as a central political terrain during the antiapartheid struggle in South Africa and the ways that this terrain persists in the postapartheid period. It explores the techno-politics underlying contemporary conflicts from the perspective of infrastructure by historically and ethnographically following the life of a small device: a prepaid water meter. Focusing on Operation Gcin'amanzi (“Save Water”) in Soweto, the book shows how, in the aftermath of apartheid and in a context of neoliberal reforms, many of the central questions of the antiapartheid struggle such as citizenship, social obligation, and the shape of democracy in the “new South Africa” were reframed as technical-managerial and procedural questions. This chapter provides an overview of the prepaid meter as well as the concept of techno-politics, along with the triumphalist rise of liberal democracy in postapartheid South Africa.
Antina von Schnitzler
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691170770
- eISBN:
- 9781400882991
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691170770.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This chapter explores the ways in which numbers and measurement became central both to the planning and implementation of Operation Gcin'amanzi and to its opposition. In particular, it examines the ...
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This chapter explores the ways in which numbers and measurement became central both to the planning and implementation of Operation Gcin'amanzi and to its opposition. In particular, it examines the multiple forms of intervention attending the corporatization of water provision and the semiotic-material work of making water calculable. It also discusses the “countermeasures” produced by activists from Phiri, as they took up numerical practices to make claims on the state, along with the larger techno-political terrain within which such numerical activism takes shape. Finally, it considers how the prepaid meter became part of a larger set of neoliberal reforms at the heart of which was the introduction of new epistemologies and targets for intervention and reform.Less
This chapter explores the ways in which numbers and measurement became central both to the planning and implementation of Operation Gcin'amanzi and to its opposition. In particular, it examines the multiple forms of intervention attending the corporatization of water provision and the semiotic-material work of making water calculable. It also discusses the “countermeasures” produced by activists from Phiri, as they took up numerical practices to make claims on the state, along with the larger techno-political terrain within which such numerical activism takes shape. Finally, it considers how the prepaid meter became part of a larger set of neoliberal reforms at the heart of which was the introduction of new epistemologies and targets for intervention and reform.
Andrea Muehlebach
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226545394
- eISBN:
- 9780226545417
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226545417.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Population and Demography
Morality is often imagined to be at odds with capitalism and its focus on the bottom line, but in this book, it is shown as the opposite: an indispensible tool for capitalist transformation. Set ...
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Morality is often imagined to be at odds with capitalism and its focus on the bottom line, but in this book, it is shown as the opposite: an indispensible tool for capitalist transformation. Set within the shifting landscape of neoliberal welfare reform in the Lombardy region of Italy, the book tracks the phenomenal rise of voluntarism in the wake of the state's withdrawal of social service programs. Using anthropological tools, it shows how socialist volunteers are interpreting their unwaged labor as an expression of social solidarity, with Catholic volunteers thinking of theirs as an expression of charity and love. Such interpretations pave the way for a mass mobilization of an ethical citizenry that is put to work by the state. Visiting several sites across the region, from Milanese high schools to the offices of state social workers to the homes of the needy, the book mounts the argument that the neoliberal state nurtures selflessness in order to cement some of its most controversial reforms. At the same time, it also shows how the insertion of such an anticapitalist narrative into the heart of neoliberalization can have unintended consequences.Less
Morality is often imagined to be at odds with capitalism and its focus on the bottom line, but in this book, it is shown as the opposite: an indispensible tool for capitalist transformation. Set within the shifting landscape of neoliberal welfare reform in the Lombardy region of Italy, the book tracks the phenomenal rise of voluntarism in the wake of the state's withdrawal of social service programs. Using anthropological tools, it shows how socialist volunteers are interpreting their unwaged labor as an expression of social solidarity, with Catholic volunteers thinking of theirs as an expression of charity and love. Such interpretations pave the way for a mass mobilization of an ethical citizenry that is put to work by the state. Visiting several sites across the region, from Milanese high schools to the offices of state social workers to the homes of the needy, the book mounts the argument that the neoliberal state nurtures selflessness in order to cement some of its most controversial reforms. At the same time, it also shows how the insertion of such an anticapitalist narrative into the heart of neoliberalization can have unintended consequences.
Immanuel Ness
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814786437
- eISBN:
- 9780814786451
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814786437.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter examines the effects of global capitalism on India's class divide and economic development. Focusing on the case of Hyderabad, it considers the fate of skilled migrant workers in the ...
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This chapter examines the effects of global capitalism on India's class divide and economic development. Focusing on the case of Hyderabad, it considers the fate of skilled migrant workers in the information technology industry who stay in India and compares their situation with that of Indian guest workers who travel to the United States to find jobs in the low-wage industrial labor market sectors. It first provides a background on neoliberal reform in India and the country's relationship with the United States in the neoliberal global system. It then considers complicating depictions of the emergence of a globally connected Indian middle class tied to the proliferation of outsourcing. The chapter's analysis of shifting labor markets shows that neoliberal globalization has benefited India's capitalist classes more than the poor and working classes. It also illustrates how dislocation and poverty have forced many South Asian migrants to risk moving to other regions of the world.Less
This chapter examines the effects of global capitalism on India's class divide and economic development. Focusing on the case of Hyderabad, it considers the fate of skilled migrant workers in the information technology industry who stay in India and compares their situation with that of Indian guest workers who travel to the United States to find jobs in the low-wage industrial labor market sectors. It first provides a background on neoliberal reform in India and the country's relationship with the United States in the neoliberal global system. It then considers complicating depictions of the emergence of a globally connected Indian middle class tied to the proliferation of outsourcing. The chapter's analysis of shifting labor markets shows that neoliberal globalization has benefited India's capitalist classes more than the poor and working classes. It also illustrates how dislocation and poverty have forced many South Asian migrants to risk moving to other regions of the world.
Nitsan Chorev
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450655
- eISBN:
- 9780801463921
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450655.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter examines how the World Health Organization (WHO), under the leadership of Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland, strategically adapted to the “new policy environment” that was created ...
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This chapter examines how the World Health Organization (WHO), under the leadership of Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland, strategically adapted to the “new policy environment” that was created by the neoliberal reforms in the health sector. In the late 1990s, the WHO underwent programmatic and organizational changes in an attempt to pacify the exogenous forces and to strategically adapt to the logic of neoliberalism. The central component of the WHO leadership's strategic adaptation to the new environment was the replacement of a social logic with economic logic as the foundation for the organization's decisions and policies. This chapter shows how WHO officials justified investment in health by emphasizing the importance of health for economic development rather than as a fundamental part of a nation's social development, while also adopting cost-effective calculations to introduce the concept of the “new universalism,” which rejected primary health care and rigid market-oriented approaches while maintaining the WHO's “central task” of alleviating poverty by improving health.Less
This chapter examines how the World Health Organization (WHO), under the leadership of Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland, strategically adapted to the “new policy environment” that was created by the neoliberal reforms in the health sector. In the late 1990s, the WHO underwent programmatic and organizational changes in an attempt to pacify the exogenous forces and to strategically adapt to the logic of neoliberalism. The central component of the WHO leadership's strategic adaptation to the new environment was the replacement of a social logic with economic logic as the foundation for the organization's decisions and policies. This chapter shows how WHO officials justified investment in health by emphasizing the importance of health for economic development rather than as a fundamental part of a nation's social development, while also adopting cost-effective calculations to introduce the concept of the “new universalism,” which rejected primary health care and rigid market-oriented approaches while maintaining the WHO's “central task” of alleviating poverty by improving health.
Kathleen C. Schwartzman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451164
- eISBN:
- 9780801468056
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451164.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This chapter examines the extent to which globalization, in the form of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), transformed, ruined, or reconfigured the poultry industry and fueled ...
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This chapter examines the extent to which globalization, in the form of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), transformed, ruined, or reconfigured the poultry industry and fueled emigration in Mexico. It first considers how trade and Mexican government policy shifts contributed to rural impoverishment and goes on to discuss the responses of those affected. Some small producers organized protests, while others opted for “exit,” abandoning their nonsustainable agricultural activities and emigrating. The chapter argues that NAFTA-mandated poultry imports led to a rural exodus not only because imports undermined the backyard production of poultry, but also because poultry was part of rural survival—one that was becoming less sustainable. Neoliberal reforms, which began during the “lost decade” of the 1980s and continued into the 1990s, unleashed changes that contributed to poverty and labor displacement in the countryside.Less
This chapter examines the extent to which globalization, in the form of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), transformed, ruined, or reconfigured the poultry industry and fueled emigration in Mexico. It first considers how trade and Mexican government policy shifts contributed to rural impoverishment and goes on to discuss the responses of those affected. Some small producers organized protests, while others opted for “exit,” abandoning their nonsustainable agricultural activities and emigrating. The chapter argues that NAFTA-mandated poultry imports led to a rural exodus not only because imports undermined the backyard production of poultry, but also because poultry was part of rural survival—one that was becoming less sustainable. Neoliberal reforms, which began during the “lost decade” of the 1980s and continued into the 1990s, unleashed changes that contributed to poverty and labor displacement in the countryside.
Saori Shibata
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781501749926
- eISBN:
- 9781501749957
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501749926.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter demonstrates that, despite the attempts at neoliberal reform, Japan's political economy has nevertheless been unable to return to sustainable levels of economic growth similar to those ...
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This chapter demonstrates that, despite the attempts at neoliberal reform, Japan's political economy has nevertheless been unable to return to sustainable levels of economic growth similar to those experienced before the bursting of the economic bubble in 1991. If one considers the three-year centered moving average of gross domestic product (GDP) growth in Japan in the period 1961–2018, Japan's economy has consistently struggled to rise above 2-percent annual-average growth for any three-year period since 1991. In part, this is a further consequence of the inability to achieve consensus around a new mode of regulation for Japan's national economy throughout this period. Thus, Japan suffers from the absence of a mode of regulation, and its efforts at liberalization have been unsuccessfully implemented—partly as a result of the opposition to efforts at reform. Japan's process of neoliberalization has therefore been impeded, incomplete, somewhat unsuccessful, and marked more by dissension and a failure to identify an alternative institutional compromise with which to secure a return to economic growth.Less
This chapter demonstrates that, despite the attempts at neoliberal reform, Japan's political economy has nevertheless been unable to return to sustainable levels of economic growth similar to those experienced before the bursting of the economic bubble in 1991. If one considers the three-year centered moving average of gross domestic product (GDP) growth in Japan in the period 1961–2018, Japan's economy has consistently struggled to rise above 2-percent annual-average growth for any three-year period since 1991. In part, this is a further consequence of the inability to achieve consensus around a new mode of regulation for Japan's national economy throughout this period. Thus, Japan suffers from the absence of a mode of regulation, and its efforts at liberalization have been unsuccessfully implemented—partly as a result of the opposition to efforts at reform. Japan's process of neoliberalization has therefore been impeded, incomplete, somewhat unsuccessful, and marked more by dissension and a failure to identify an alternative institutional compromise with which to secure a return to economic growth.
Bilge Yesil
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040177
- eISBN:
- 9780252098376
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040177.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Investment and expansion have made Turkish media a transnational powerhouse in the Middle East and Central Asia. Yet tensions continue to grow between media outlets and the Islamist AKP party that ...
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Investment and expansion have made Turkish media a transnational powerhouse in the Middle East and Central Asia. Yet tensions continue to grow between media outlets and the Islamist AKP party that has governed the country for over a decade. This book unlocks the complexities surrounding and penetrating today's Turkish media. The book focuses on a convergence of global and domestic forces that range from the 1980 military coup to globalization's inroads and the recent resurgence of political Islam. The book's analysis foregrounds how these and other forces become intertwined, and it uses Turkey's media to unpack the ever-more-complex relationships. The book confronts essential questions regarding the role of the state and military in building the structures that shaped Turkey's media system; media adaptations to ever-shifting contours of political and economic power; how the far-flung economic interests of media conglomerates leave them vulnerable to state pressure; and the ways Turkey's politicized judiciary criminalizes certain speech. Drawing on local knowledge and a wealth of Turkish sources, the book provides an engrossing look at the fault lines carved by authoritarianism, tradition, neoliberal reform, and globalization within Turkey's increasingly far-reaching media.Less
Investment and expansion have made Turkish media a transnational powerhouse in the Middle East and Central Asia. Yet tensions continue to grow between media outlets and the Islamist AKP party that has governed the country for over a decade. This book unlocks the complexities surrounding and penetrating today's Turkish media. The book focuses on a convergence of global and domestic forces that range from the 1980 military coup to globalization's inroads and the recent resurgence of political Islam. The book's analysis foregrounds how these and other forces become intertwined, and it uses Turkey's media to unpack the ever-more-complex relationships. The book confronts essential questions regarding the role of the state and military in building the structures that shaped Turkey's media system; media adaptations to ever-shifting contours of political and economic power; how the far-flung economic interests of media conglomerates leave them vulnerable to state pressure; and the ways Turkey's politicized judiciary criminalizes certain speech. Drawing on local knowledge and a wealth of Turkish sources, the book provides an engrossing look at the fault lines carved by authoritarianism, tradition, neoliberal reform, and globalization within Turkey's increasingly far-reaching media.
