Neoliberalism and neoconservatism are two distinct political rationalities in the contemporary United States. They have few overlapping formal characteristics, and even appear contradictory in many respects. Yet they converge not only in the current presidential administration but also in their de-democratizing effects. Their respective devaluation of political liberty, equality, substantive citizenship, and the rule of law in favor of governance according to market criteria on the one side, and valorization of state power for putatively moral ends on the other, undermines (...) both the culture and institutions of constitutional democracy. Above all, the two rationalities work symbiotically to produce a subject relatively indifferent to veracity and accountability in government and to political freedom and equality among the citizenry. (shrink)

Approachable for general readers as well as for students in women's studies related courses at all levels, this invaluable guide follows the unique Companion format in combining over a dozen in-depth background chapters with more than 400 A-Z dictionary entries. The background chapters are written by major figures in the field of feminist studies, and include thorough coverage of the history of feminism, as well as extensive discussions of topics such as Postfeminism, Men in Feminism, Feminism and New Technologies and (...) Feminism and Philosophy. The dictionary entries cover the major individuals and issues essential to an understanding both of feminism's roots and of the trends that are shaping its future. Readers will find entries on people such as Aphra Behn, Simone de Beauvoir, Princess Diana, Courtney Love and Robert Bly, and on subjects such as Afro-American feminism, cosmetic surgery, the 'new man', prostitution, reproductive technologies and 'slasher' films. (shrink)

Writing for a wide audience, Harvey here tells the political-economic story of where neoliberalization came from and how it proliferated on the world stage. He constructs a framework, not only for analyzing the political and economic dangers that now surround us, but also for assessing the prospects for more socially just alternatives.

Si bien los conceptos de globalización y cosmopolitismo se suelen entender como teóricamente relacionados o co-implicados, en la práctica actual constatamos que no es así. La idea que mantenemos es que el actual proceso de globalización en su forma neoliberal, y apuntalada por organismos internacionales como el Banco Mundial, impide un cosmopolitismo que pueda avanzar la agenda de igualdad a nivel global. La propuesta que presentamos de un cosmopolitismo feminista pretende servir de crítica fundamental a esa manera de entender y (...) practicar la globalización. El reto para nuestra propuesta será el de poder conformar un sujeto cosmopolita que buscando esa igualdad de género supere, a su vez, tanto un universalismo formal saturado de un sujeto patriarcal, como un discurso de las diferencias que no logra fraguar un sujeto político que sea capaz de moverse en las diferentes luchas necesarias para una igualdad global sin fragmentarse. (shrink)

En este artículo sostenemos que el discurso del emprendimiento opera como un dispositivo de individualización de la relación salarial que oculta el fuerte contraste entre el plano ideal –autonomía, independencia subjetiva, éxito- y los obstáculos materiales reales –profundización del endeudamiento, alta proporción de fracaso, precarización-. Analizamos empíricamente dos casos: 1) el Foro de Activación para el Empleo de la Comunidad de Madrid que promueve lo que llamamos el narcisismo competitivo neoliberal; y 2) los contrastes entre el plano ideal y material (...) en los discursos de personas en paro entrevistadas durante 2012 y 2013. Concluimos que las políticas de empleo que promocionan el emprendimiento no resuelven el problema del desempleo sino que, fundamentalmente, sirven para gobernar políticamente la precariedad masiva. Proponemos utilizar las categorías de emprendeudores y de emprendeudamiento para una mejor comprensión sociológica del discurso del emprendimiento. (shrink)

From domestic goddess to desperate housewife, this book explores the importance and centrality of postfeminism in contemporary popular culture.

In this article we take the use of examples as a means to explore the processes of persuasion and consensus-construction involved in the legitimation of popular management knowledge. Examples, as concrete instances or events used to substantiate a wider argument, have been variedly regarded in different research traditions. Classical logic and rhetoric have considered them an inferior form of argument, useful for pedagogic or public debate but inadequate for higher forms of thought. This spirit still permeates much psychological research on (...) communication, where the great persuasive import of examples has been contrasted with more scientific and formal resources for argumentation. Considered in this light, the contingent and episodic nature of examples seems to make them cognitively inferior to explicit statements of general rules. However, various strands of research on the nature of scientific knowledge have shown that implicit forms of knowledge are an integral part of scientific expertise. Examples may thus be more central to disciplinary thought than the conventional normative view seems to allow. In this spirit, we explore the use of examples in a hotly contested field, that of popular discourse on business and management. The profusion of examples in this kind of writing has been often noted, and almost as often criticized. We seek to explore more fully how these examples are deployed, examining the discursive devices that mark examples within the development of the text, their function as rhetorical moves, and their role in presenting arguments that are never otherwise made explicit. (shrink)