Contesting Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism's "market revolution"--realized through practices like privatization, deregulation, fiscal devolution, and workfare programs--has had a transformative effect on contemporary cities. The consequences of market-oriented politics for urban life have been widely studied, but less attention has been given to how grassroots groups, nongovernmental organizations, and progressive city administrations are fighting back. In case studies written from a variety of theoretical and political perspectives, this book examines how struggles around such issues as affordable housing, public services and space, neighborhood sustainability, living wages, workers' rights, fair trade, and democratic governance are reshaping urban political geographies in North America and around the world.

This edited collection examines the intersections between career guidance, social justice and neo-liberalism. Contributors offer an original and global discussion of the role of career guidance in the struggle for social justice and evaluate the field from a diverse range of theoretical positions. Through a series of chapters that positions career guidance within a neoliberal context and presents theories to inform an emancipatory direction for the field, this book raises questions, offers resources and provides some glimpses of an alternative future for work. Drawing on education, sociology, and political science, this book addresses the theoretical basis of career guidance’s involvement in social justice as well as the methodological consequences in relation to career guidance research.

Neoliberalism, which advocates free markets without government interference, has become increasingly utilized and controversial over the last three and a half decades. This book presents case studies of Chile and Taiwan, two countries that seemingly prospered from adopting neoliberal strategies, and finds that their developmental histories challenge neoliberalism in fundamental ways. From one perspective, the political economies of Chile and Taiwan might appear to be poster children for neoliberalism. Both took aggressive policy actions (Taiwan in the 1960s and Chile in the 1970s) to create market-driven economies that were well integrated into the capitalist global economy. Subsequently, these two countries were cited as ‘economic miracles’ that opened their markets, resulting in rapid economic growth and development. A closer examination of the two nations, however, turns up very significant differences between them. In particular, Taiwan, with its much more statist approach to development, outperformed Chile by a considerable margin; and some of the experiences of Chile departed markedly from neoliberal predictions. The authors argue that Taiwan’s strategy was the more successful of the two, primarily because it discarded the ideology of neoliberalism and unfettered laissez-faire. Scholars, educators, and students studying globalization, political economy, and/or economic development will find this book an irreplaceable addition to the discussion of neoliberalism.

In Challenging Neoliberalism at Turkey's Gezi Park, Gürcan and Peker explore the events of May 31, 2013, when what began as a localized demonstration against the demolition of Gezi Park, a public park in Istanbul turned into a nationwide protest cycle with an unprecedented form and scale never before seen in Turkey's history.

Eduardo Silva offers the first comprehensive comparative study of anti-free market movements in Latin America and a resulting shift in governmental intervention in the economy and society.

Neoliberal education policies have privatised, marketised, decentralized, controlled and surveilled, managed according to the business and control principles of new public managerialism, attacked the rights and conditions of education workers, and resulted in a loss of democracy, critique and equality of access and outcome. This book, written by an impressive international array of scholars and activists, explores the mechanisms and ideologies behind neoliberal education, while evaluating and promoting resistance on a local, national and global level. Chapters examine the activities and impacts of the arguably socialist revolution in Venezuela, the Porto Alegre democratic community experimental model in Brazil, the activities of the Rouge Forum of democratic socialist teachers and educators in the USA, Public Service International, resistance movements against the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services), and trade union and social movement and community/parental opposition to neoliberal education policies in Britain and in Latin America.

Contesting Governing Ideologies is the third volume in the Educational Philosophy and Theory: Editor’s Choice series and represents a collection of texts that provide a cutting-edge analysis of the philosophy and theory of performances of neoliberal ideology in education. In past decades, philosophy of education has provided a critical commentary on problematic areas of neoliberal ideology. As such, this collection argues, philosophy of education can be considered as an intellectual struggle that runs through the contemporary ideological landscape and has roots that go back to the Enlightenment in its traditions. This book covers multiple philosophical and educational theoretical perspectives of what we know about the ideology of neoliberalism, and many of its practices and projects. Neoliberalism is difficult to define, but what is certain is that it has significantly matured as a political doctrine and set of policy practices. This collection covers questions of ideology, politics, and policy in relation to the subject and the institution alike. The chapters in this book provide rich and diverse reading, allowing readers to rethink established discourses and contest ideologies, providing a thorough and careful philosophical and theoretical analysis of the story of neoliberalism over the past decades. Contesting Governing Ideologies will be key reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of philosophy of education, philosophy, education, educational theory, post-structural theory, the policy and politics of education, and the pedagogy of education.

Documenting the outcomes from three decades of transnational research conducted under the leadership of António Teodoro, this volume offers a robust scaffolding of the social and political context in which global education is being challenged by the contradictions of neoliberalism, globalization, deregulation, governance, and democracy. Contesting the Global Development of Sustainable and Inclusive Education presents outcomes from transnational studies conducted in response to global policies advocating the development of sustainable and inclusive education for all. Chapters map the impacts of globalization on education policy and consider how international organizations are shaping national education reforms. Focusing on questions of social justice, the volume asks how the neoliberal strategies enacted by national governments are affecting the work of teachers as well as curriculum, teacher training, and assessment. Finally, the text asks whether there are alternatives to financially-driven, competition-based reforms that might better position education as an action project for social justice. This volume will be of interest to postgraduate students, scholars, researchers and policymakers in the fields of global education, comparative education, and education policy.