DESCRIPTION: Neoliberalism is facing a deep crisis. Everyone seems to agree that it is the cause of a wide range of current issues, from growing economic inequalities and increasing indebtedness to the erosion of interpersonal relationships, climate change, and more. It is hard to tell if this turbulence is a catalyst for further advancing neoliberal reforms or if we should anticipate a significant transformation. Nonetheless, before offering a response, it is important to comprehend the nature of neoliberalism, as there is a lack of consensus regarding its definition.
In his lectures on “The Birth of Biopolitics” at Collège de France (1978–79), Foucault suggests that neoliberalism is a mode of governance based on market dominance, individual competition, and the generalization of the “enterprise form” to all of society. Rather than relying exclusively on discipline, neoliberal governance aims to produce self-disciplined subjects who identify their freedom with the imperative to accomplish themselves by enhancing productivity and economic growth. Accordingly, the individual is called upon to be an “entrepreneur of the self” and to manage their life as if operating within a logic of profits, earnings and efficiency, thus experiencing their own existence as human capital. Against this conception, Foucault invites us to struggle for autonomous self-creation through the “care of the self.”
This Seminar will discuss the current state of neoliberalism and its logic by way of Foucaultian analysis. How do we distinguish these virtuous practices Foucault addresses from the techniques of self-empowerment and self-realization that are continuously marketed by the present-day industry of self-merchandising? If we are experiencing a crisis of neoliberal governmentality, how can we ensure that we are also producing alternative forms of subjectivity instead of inadvertently contributing to a new strategy for the valorization of human capital?
Session 1: Introduction to Foucault: Power, subjectivity, and governance
Session 2: American Neoliberalism: Human Capital and the Enterprise of the Self
Session 3: Financialization vs Care of the Self
Session 4: Student Presentations
IMAGE: Gabriel Alcala, Foucault In California, 2023
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