What is Neoliberalism? Historical Origins and Global Itinerary
Neoliberalism is a word that is often invoked in contemporary discourse but is rarely defined. Nevertheless, this ideological project that has shaped social, economic, political, and cultural life across the world in various and meaningful ways has ideological origins in the wake of imperial collapse in the interwar period. How did this very particular ideological outlook and accompanying suite of policy prescriptions become universalized? What were the original arguments for neoliberal reform and how and why did they change over time? In this course, students will read selections from the work of neoliberalism’s key thinkers and study historical, sociological, and economic accounts of its global spread.