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Article
Publication date: 28 December 2020

Is resilience a unique extension rather than a rejection of neoliberalism? A critical reading of David Chandler’s writings on resilience

H. Unnathi S. Samaraweera

This paper aims to engage with the concept of resilience as theorized by David Chandler in his book Resilience: The Governance of Complexity by drawing from the theory of…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to engage with the concept of resilience as theorized by David Chandler in his book Resilience: The Governance of Complexity by drawing from the theory of governmentality presented by Michel Foucault and Jonathan Joseph.

Design/methodology/approach

Evolving from classical liberalism to neoliberalism and from natural sciences to social sciences, the term “resilience” raises many questions about its sustainability in terms of its meaning and complexity. While most scholars tend to underscore the significance and practicality of the term, a few scholars argue that it is a failed dogma with neoliberal characteristics. As this is a theory-based study, its methodology involves close readings of academic texts produced mainly by David Chandler, Michel Foucault and Jonathan Joseph.

Findings

The central argument in this paper is though Chandler convincingly explains the paradigm shift of the term resilience from classical to neoliberal, his theorizing lacks the understanding that the type of power and governmentality involved in individual freedom, autonomy and complexity are actually parts of the neoliberal state. Hence, the buzzword resilience today is actually an extension of the same neoliberal thought.

Originality/value

First, the author attempts to critically engage with the term resilience from a sociological point of view using purposively selected academic literature. Second, the paper attempts to bring Chandler’s conceptualization on resilience into the disaster context and evaluates its practicality within the tenets of neoliberalism by drawing on Joseph’s and Foucault’s theorizations.

Details

International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJDRBE-05-2020-0050
ISSN: 1759-5908

Keywords

  • Governance
  • Disaster
  • Resilience
  • Neoliberalism
  • Complexity
  • David Chandler

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Article
Publication date: 12 March 2018

The ghost in the legal machine: algorithmic governmentality, economy, and the practice of law

Adam Harkens

This paper aims to investigate algorithmic governmentality – as proposed by Antoinette Rouvroy – specifically in relation to law. It seeks to show how algorithmic…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate algorithmic governmentality – as proposed by Antoinette Rouvroy – specifically in relation to law. It seeks to show how algorithmic profiling can be particularly attractive for those in legal practice, given restraints on time and resources. It deviates from Rouvroy in two ways. First, it argues that algorithmic governmentality does not contrast with neoliberal modes of government in that it allows indirect rule through economic calculations. Second, it argues that critique of such systems is possible, especially if the creative nature of law can be harnessed effectively.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper, with a theory-based approach, that is intended to explore relevant issues related to algorithmic governmentality as a basis for future empirical research. It builds on governmentality and socio-legal studies, as well as research on algorithmic practices and some documentary analysis of reports and public-facing marketing of relevant technologies.

Findings

This paper provides insights on how algorithmic knowledge is collected, constructed and applied in different situations. It provides examples of how algorithms are currently used and how trends are developing. It demonstrates how such uses can be informed by socio-political and economic rationalities.

Research limitations/implications

Further empirical research is required to test the theoretical findings.

Originality/value

This paper takes up Rouvroy’s question of whether we are at the end(s) of critique and seeks to identify where such critique can be made possible. It also highlights the importance of acknowledging the role of political rationalities in informing the activity of algorithmic assemblages.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-09-2016-0038
ISSN: 1477-996X

Keywords

  • Law
  • Economy
  • Socio-technical systems
  • Information and power
  • Algorithmic governmentality
  • Legal practice

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Book part
Publication date: 13 December 2010

Policy Why(s): Policy rationalities and the changing logic of educational reform in postcommunist Ukraine

Olena Fimyar

This chapter offers an alternative to mainstream policy studies analysis of educational policy in postcommunist Ukraine. Taking its many insights from Foucault-inspired…

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Abstract

This chapter offers an alternative to mainstream policy studies analysis of educational policy in postcommunist Ukraine. Taking its many insights from Foucault-inspired studies of education policy (Besley and Peters, 2007; Doherty, 2006, 2007; Fejes and Nicoll, 2007; Fimyar, 2008a, 2008b; Lindblad and Popkewitz, 2004; Marshall, 1998; Masschelein, Simons, Bröckling, and Pongratz, 2007; Peters, 2001, 2004, 2006; Peters and Besley, 2007; Popkewitz, 2007; Tikly, 2003), this chapter identifies and examines a new domain of analysis, termed in this chapter policy rationalities or policy why(s). Policy rationalities are conceptualized in this chapter as structures distinct from policy discourses that enable the emergence of some discourses and constrain the emergence or reception of others. “Conditions of possibility,” “background practices,” or “epistemes” are some other ways of thinking about the abstract – yet important for the study of policy – term of “policy rationalities.” Fourteen policy documents and 17 years of policy-making (1991–2008) represent textual and temporal borders of analysis. The official authorship of the documents is limited to the three state actors, namely, the President, Parliament, and the Cabinet of Ministers. The rationale for not including the ministerial documents in the analysis is explained in the chapter. The main methods employed by the study are deconstruction and discourse analysis. The chapter discusses three sets of policy rationalities: the rationalities of nation- and state-building, the rationalities of comparison and critique, and, what I will call, the rationalities of “catching-up” Europeanization. The study also traces the textual constructions of the models of individual, society, and the state as well as the definitions of education, upbringing, and educational governance in the documents under analysis. The chapter makes an important contribution to the current debates in policy sociology and governmentality studies by mapping out a new terrain of inquiry, i.e., policy rationalities, as an important starting point for the analysis of educational reform and change.

Details

Post-Socialism is not Dead: (Re)Reading the Global in Comparative Education
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3679(2010)0000014006
ISBN: 978-0-85724-418-5

Keywords

  • policy rationalities
  • policy discourses
  • Foucauldian analysis
  • postcommunist Ukraine

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Book part
Publication date: 19 September 2006

Just Values or Just Value? Remaking the Local in Agro-Food Studies

E. Melanie DuPuis, David Goodman and Jill Harrison

In this chapter, the authors take a close look at the current discourse of food system relocalization. From the perspective of theories of justice and theories of…

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Abstract

In this chapter, the authors take a close look at the current discourse of food system relocalization. From the perspective of theories of justice and theories of neoliberalism, food relocalization is wrapped up in a problematic, and largely unexamined, communitarian discourse on social justice. The example for California's localized governance of pesticide drift demonstrates that localization can effectively make social justice problems invisible. The authors also look at the EU context, where a different form of localization discourse emphasizes the local capture of rents in the value chain as a neoliberal strategy of territorial valorization. Examining Marsden et al.'s case study of one of these localization projects in the UK, the authors argue that this strategy does not necessarily lead to more equitable forms of rural development. In fact, US and EU discourses are basically two sides of the same coin. Specifically, in neoliberal biopolitical form, they both obscure politics, behind either the discourse of “value” in the EU or “values” in the US. Rather than rejecting localism, however, the authors conclude by arguing for a more “reflexive” localism that harnesses the power of this strategy while consciously struggling against inequality in local arenas.

Details

Between the Local and the Global
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1057-1922(06)12010-7
ISBN: 978-1-84950-417-1

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Book part
Publication date: 2 December 2019

Bibliography

Charles Marley

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Problematising Young People
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83867-895-120191002
ISBN: 978-1-83867-896-8

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Article
Publication date: 8 July 2019

Professionals’ involvement of relatives – only good intentions?

Stinne Glasdam and Jeppe Oute

The purpose of this paper is to explore how, and under what conditions, professionals involve relatives in clinical practice.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how, and under what conditions, professionals involve relatives in clinical practice.

Design/methodology/approach

Two cases were constructed from two studies in Denmark, theoretically inspired by Bourdieu’s concepts of doxa and position and analyzed with focus on the involvement of relatives from the perspective of professionals.

Findings

Support to relatives in practice is rarely included in the way that treatment and care are organized in healthcare. Professionals’ views of the involvement of relatives were characterized by the values of neoliberal ideology and medical-professional rationality, in which relatives are not regarded as a subject of care and support in clinical practice. The involvement of relatives aimed to ensure patients’ participation in randomized clinical trial and to help professionals to care for patients when the professionals were not absolutely needed. Professionals were relatively higher positioned in the clinic than relatives were, which allowed professionals to in – and exclude relatives. Neoliberal ideology and medical-professional rationality go hand in hand when it comes to patient treatment, care and the involvement of relatives; it is all about efficiency, treatment optimization and increased social control of the diagnosed patient. These neoliberal, organizational values consolidate doxa of the medical field and the positions that govern the meeting with patients’ relatives – if it takes place at all.

Originality/value

The results put into perspective how the combination of neoliberalism and medical logic work as an organizing principle in contemporary healthcare systems, and challenge a normative, humanistic view on involving patients’ relatives in the medical clinic.

Details

Journal of Organizational Ethnography, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-01-2018-0003
ISSN: 2046-6749

Keywords

  • Bourdieu
  • Psychiatry
  • Neoliberalism
  • Oncology
  • Medical rationality
  • Relatives

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Article
Publication date: 20 February 2017

From “mad men” to “math men”: The rise of expertise in digital measurement and the shaping of online consumer freedom

Thierry Viale, Yves Gendron and Roy Suddaby

The authors study how communication agencies became important sites for the rise of measurement expertise in the government of consumer conduct following the development…

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Abstract

Purpose

The authors study how communication agencies became important sites for the rise of measurement expertise in the government of consumer conduct following the development of online consumption. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the processes by which digital measurement developed (within the agencies) as a new legitimate form of expertise, able to produce relevant and detailed knowledge about the government of web users.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors carried out a field examination in France, predicated on 100 interviews with actors involved in communication consultancy. Drawing on the concepts of governmentality and inter-jurisdictional experimentation, the authors examine how digital measurement expertise acquired legitimacy within agencies. The authors also analyze how contemporary technologies of measurement and surveillance, as operated by in-house digital experts, provide advertising specialists and advertisers with increasingly precise data on consumer conduct and thought.

Findings

The constitution and legitimization of digital measurement expertise was characterized by experimentation, culminating in the production of persuasive claims of tangibility concerning communication impact, and in relative agreement on the relevance of digital expertise in operating increasingly powerful technologies of measurement and surveillance.

Originality/value

While the role of experts in promoting and implementing neoliberal governmentality is emphasized in the literature, the study indicates that considerable work is needed to develop and legitimize expertise consequent with neoliberalism. Also, the analysis highlights that the spread of digital measurement expertise and knowledge production in the government of web users constitutes a noteworthy step in the neoliberalization of society. Behind the front of “free” conduct lies an increasingly powerful network of technologies and expertise aimed at rendering consumer conduct knowable and predictable.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 30 no. 2
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-12-2014-1887
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

  • Measurement
  • Consumer behaviour
  • Communication consultancy
  • Digital expertise
  • Inter-jurisdictional experimentation
  • Neoliberal governmentality

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Book part
Publication date: 22 July 2014

The Cultural Role of Science in Policy Implementation: Voluntary Self-Regulation in the UK Building Sector

Libby Schweber

The UK government’s support for sustainable construction involves an explicit attempt to introduce a new institutional logic into the construction sector, while the use of…

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Abstract

The UK government’s support for sustainable construction involves an explicit attempt to introduce a new institutional logic into the construction sector, while the use of Building Research Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) as a preferred policy mechanism exemplifies neoliberal use of voluntary self-regulation to promote policy goals. This paper uses the case of BREEAM to examine the role of science and scientific expertise in the exercise of neoliberal governance. More specifically, it combines a neo-institutional analysis of change with Foucault’s theory of governmentality to explore the effect of BREEAM on eight construction projects. The concepts of visibility, knowledge, techniques, and identity provide an analytic grid to explore the effect of BREEAM on understandings and practices of “green building.” Appeals to science and scientific authority are found to be most important in those instances where institutional logics clash and the legitimacy of BREEAM as a carrier of sustainable construction is challenged. From a theoretical perspective, the case studies highlight the role of instruments in the micro-dynamics of institutionalization. Empirically, it underlines the limited, but nonetheless significant, effect of weakly institutionalized neoliberal policy mechanisms.

Details

Fields of Knowledge: Science, Politics and Publics in the Neoliberal Age
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S0198-871920140000027014
ISBN: 978-1-78350-668-2

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Article
Publication date: 11 November 2014

Neoliberalism, crises and accusations of fraud: a vicious circle of reinforcing influences?

Henri Guénin-Paracini, Yves Gendron and Jérémy Morales

– This paper aims to better understand why neoliberal governance is so resilient to the crises that frequently affect all or part of the economy.

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to better understand why neoliberal governance is so resilient to the crises that frequently affect all or part of the economy.

Design/methodology/approach

The argument of this paper relies on a macroanalysis of discourses surrounding the Global Financial Crisis.

Findings

Drawing on Girard and Foucault’s work, this paper argues that the resilience of neoliberalism partly ensues from the proclivity of this mode of governing to foster, for reasons that this paper seeks to highlight, spontaneous and widespread processes of scapegoating in times of turmoil. As a consequence of these processes, crises often are collectively construed as resulting from frauds: the blame is focused on specific actors whose lack of morality is denounced, and this individualizing line of interpretation protects the regime from systemic questioning.

Practical, social and political implications

Particular actors, rather than the system itself, are made accountable when things go wrong. Consequences are paramount. Today’s political economy is characterized with a proclivity toward social reproduction. While substantive change is possible in theory, considerable challenges are involved in practice in overcoming the dominance of neoliberalism in society.

Originality/value

Although Girard’s work has exerted significant influence over a number of disciplines in the social sciences, his ideas have not yet been widely used in governance and accountability-related research. Anthropological theorizations – such as those proposed by Girard – are valuable in providing us with a sense of how power develops in the economy.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/QRAM-05-2013-0020
ISSN: 1176-6093

Keywords

  • Neoliberalism
  • Crises
  • Accusations of fraud
  • Scapegoating process
  • Sensemaking

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Article
Publication date: 7 September 2015

Crisis management policy. How discourses shape academic-political actors

Jens Maesse

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a discourse analytical understanding of the political economy. The term “crisis” is an important label in recent discussion…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a discourse analytical understanding of the political economy. The term “crisis” is an important label in recent discussion in political economy. Yet the genuine discursive dimension of “the crisis” and the multiple linguistic layers of the crisis discourse remains an open issue.

Design/methodology/approach

Realist perspectives usually believe in an external reality of crises independent of the language construction; in contrast, constructivist perspectives argue that a crisis is always the result of a socio-linguistic construction process. This contribution follows a critical-constructivist perspective, thereby taking into account powerful discursive actors which are able to “declare” a state in the world as a “crisis”.

Findings

From a discourse analytical point of view, this paper examines the rules and logics of crisis management policy, arguing that a new politico-academic elite has appeared which is beyond the classical distinction between “Keynesians” and “neo-liberals”. By taking a position in the discourse of the recent debate on financial regulation, these new elite might be able to manage the crisis for a particular time, as they are constructed as “moderating actors” through academic and political discourses.

Research limitations/implications

From a practical point of view, this analysis cannot offer economic solutions; from an analytical viewpoint, it will not give insights into discursive contexts.

Practical implications

This analysis helps to understand current debates on economic policy and to improve the communicative efficiency of the participants.

Originality/value

This paper combines a discourse analysis with a governmentality perspective and applies this analytical tool onto a political and economic topic currently prevailing in the global political economy.

Details

On the Horizon, vol. 23 no. 3
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/OTH-05-2015-0016
ISSN: 1074-8121

Keywords

  • Governmentality
  • Economic sociology
  • Financial crisis
  • Discourse analysis
  • Economics
  • Cultural political economy
  • Economic expert discourse
  • Economic experts

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