Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften Neoliberalism and After?: Education, Social Policy, and the Crisis of Western Capitalism: 4 (Global Studies in Education)

The era that began with the election of the Thatcher and Reagan governments has been dominated by contemporary forms of neoliberalism-based market fundamentalism, globalization as world economic integration and the ideology of «free trade,» and an attack on «big» government and social welfare. This book is a historical and theoretical investigation of contemporary neoliberalism in relation to education policy and its rollback of the Keynesian welfare state. It argues that education is the basis of an open society and is a social welfare right in the merging knowledge economy. Drawing on the theoretical lens of Michel Foucault’s work on governmentality understood as a form of radical political economy, the book explores and critiques neoliberalism as the ruling ideological consensus. It also questions whether and to what extent its influence will continue, in the face of the destabilization of markets that followed the financial crisis and the global recession that began in 2007, in the advanced liberal economies of the United States and the European Union. Review «In this crisp, elegant volume Michael A. Peters dissects the fascinating history of neoliberalism from its roots in the Mont Pelerin Society and German ordoliberalism, and the Chicago and Public Choice schools, to its irradiation through obscure think tanks into the world of public policy. The impact of neoliberal ideas in the second half of the twentieth century was deep going. Peters, in a reflective mood, assays the metaphors and models of the movement, its impact on the university and the public sector, its challenge to academia as a liberal profession, the neoliberal philosophy of individualism and its paradoxical solicitation of managerialism, its pioneering of the economics of information and contemporary knowledge capitalism, and much else besides. Peters' style is urbane, his tenor is summative, and his analysis is crystal sharp. He revisits Foucault's intricate probing of neoliberal schools and explores the post-modern currents that both criticised and celebrated various forms of neoliberalism. He returns repeatedly to the still-extraordinary case of New Zealand that turned on a penny in the 1980s from entrenched welfare state to neoliberal model, and concludes with the prophecies of 'the end of neoliberalism' that accompanied the global financial crisis. In this book, Peters sums up the experiences of a generation that critiqued the neoliberals without ever conquering them. He does this with pithy erudition and a terse command of the intellectual ardours of the past forty years.» (Peter Murphy, Associate Professor of Communications, Monash University) «Bringing together findings from several decades of observation and analysis, Michael A. Peters' cosmopolitan survey draws on the recent experience of his own country, Aotearoa/New Zealand, to sharply illuminate the impacts in several countries of neoliberal governmentality on public education policies, and their corrosive implications for public culture and social justice.» (Colin Gordon, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust) «World recessions are always turning points. In 'Neoliberalism and After?' Michael A. Peters opens to clear-minded scrutiny the main political-economic ideas that evolved after the last world recession, that of the 1930s. Those ideas reached a dead end in 2008-2009. Critical scrutiny is vital if we are to clear away the rubble on the road - left by the wreckage of neoliberalism as both a guide to action and a system of rule - and move forward. This brilliant book demonstrates that in uncertain times, we have continuing resources with which to illuminate the next phase - the critique of liberal political philosophy, Foucault's demolition of control systems, creative cultures in universities and civil society, education as a universal welfare right and a condition of democratic advance.» (Simon Marginson, Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of