Social Justice and Neoliberalism: Global Perspectives

by Robert Rogerson (Contribution by), Peter North (Contribution by), Kathrin Horschelmann (Contribution by), Simon Reid-Henry (Contribution by), Colin Marx (Contribution by)

Overview

The continuing expansion of neoliberalism into ever more spaces and spheres of life has profound implications for social justice. Despite the number of policies designed to target 'social exclusion', people in many communities continue to be marginalized by economic restructuring.

Social Justice and Neoliberalism explores the connections between neoliberalism, social justice and exclusion. The authors raise critical questions about the extent to which neoliberal programmes are able to deliver social justice in different locations around the world. The book offers grounded, theoretically oriented, empirically rich analysis that critiques neoliberalism while understanding its material impacts. It also stresses the need to extend analyses beyond the dominant spheres of capitalism to look at the ways in which communities resist and remake the economic and social order, through contestation and protest but also in their everyday lives.

Global in scope, this book brings together writers who examine these themes in the global South, the former 'communist' East and the West, using the experience of marginal peoples, places and communities to challenge our conceptions of capitalism and its geographies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781842779200
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/01/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Adrian Smith is Professor of Human Geography and Head of the Department of Geography at Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of Reconstructing the Regional Economy (1998), Theorising Transition (1998) and Work, Employment and Transition (2002). He has been an editor of Regional Studies and will be an editor of European Urban and Regional Studies from 2009.

Alison Stenning is Reader in Economic and Social Geography in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University. Her work has been published in a number of sociology and geography jourbanals.

Katie Willis is Reader in Development Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her main publications include Theories and Practices of Development (2005); Gender and Migration (2000), Challenges and Change in Middle America (2002) and State/Nation/Transnation (2004). She is editor of Geoforum and International Development Planning Review.
Adrian Smith is Professor of Human Geography and Head of the Department of Geography at Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of Reconstructing the Regional Economy (1998), Theorising Transition (1998) and Work, Employment and Transition (2002). He has been an editor of Regional Studies and will be an editor of European Urban and Regional Studies from 2009.

Alison Stenning is Reader in Economic and Social Geography in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University. Her work has been published in a number of sociology and geography jourbanals.

Katie Willis is Reader in Development Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her main publications include Theories and Practices of Development (2005); Gender and Migration (2000), Challenges and Change in Middle America (2002) and State/Nation/Transnation (2004). She is editor of Geoforum and International Development Planning Review.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Social Justice and Neoliberalism - Katie Willis, Adrian Smith and Alison Stenning

1. Voices from the Trueque: Barter Networks and Resistance to Neoliberalism in Argentina - Pete North

2. Confounding Neoliberalism: Priests, Privatization and Social Justice in the Peruvian Andes - Elizabeth Olson

3. Travelling Neoliberalism: Polish and Ghanaian workers in London - Jon May, Kavita Datta, Yara Evans, Joanna Herbert, Cathy McIlwaine and Jane Wills

4. Neoliberalization and its Discontents: The Experience of Working Poverty in Manchester - Vinny Pattinson

5. Bargaining with the Devil: Neoliberalization, Informal Work and Workers' Resistance in the Clothing Industry of Turkey - Ergül Ergün

6. Transitions to Work and the Making of Neoliberal Selves: Growing up in (the former) East Germany - Kathrin Hörschelmann

7. The Emergence of a Working Poor: Labour Markets, Neoliberalization and Diverse Economies in Post-Socialist Cities - Adrian Smith, Alison Stenning, Alena Rochovská and Dariusz Świątek

8. Difference without Dominance: Social Justice and the (Neoliberal) Economy in Urban Development - Colin Marx

Conclusions: Neoliberalization, Social Justice and Resistance - Alison Stenning, Adrian Smith and Katie Willis

Editorial Reviews

As the economic pundits acknowledge (finally!) the failures of the neoliberal order, Social Justice and Neoliberalism offers new research into its devastating impacts on everyday lives. In fine-grained and wide-ranging analyses, the authors demonstrate how neoliberalism was domesticated, spatialized, diversified, co-constituted, resisted and recoded by people and organizations in place. This meticulously researched collection not only indicts neoliberal ideology but points beyond it to possibilities for ethical markets and more just economic relations.” —J.K. Gibson-Graham

“Social justice and neoliberalism is a refreshing alternative to the "global steamroller" view of the free-market revolution. Punchy and prescient, this superb collection of essays does a great job of putting neoliberalism in its place-both theoretically and politically.” —Jamie Peck, University of British Columbia

“This excellent book focuses on the everyday spaces of neoliberalism. Richly theorised case studies from eight very different countries examine how processes associated with marketisation are differentially experienced and contested. Not only does this book provide new evidence of the relationship between neoliberalism and economic marginalisation, it also identifies the importance of new identities and forms of governance, and explores the implications for social justice. It is an impressive contribution to the literature on neoliberalism that should be read by critical scholars and all those interested in the changing lives of real people.” —Wendy Larner, University of Bristol

From the Publisher