Transcendence, fantasy and desire: the affective infrastructures of neoliberalism

超越、幻想和欲望：新自由主义的情感基础设施

• 批准号: ES/X007359/1
• 负责人: Carla Ibled
• 金额: $ 13.14万
• 依托单位: University of East Anglia
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FX007359%2F1
• 关键词: Transcendence; fantasy; desire; affective; infrastructures

My research critically engages with contemporary discourses of neoliberalism, a socio-economic doctrine associated with politicians like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and with economists like Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. In general, neoliberalism is characterised by its belief in the primacy of markets, in the benefits of competition, in constraints on governmental intervention and in individual economic freedom. For neoliberal thinkers the market can solve all social problems. For example, neoliberals argue that climate catastrophe can be averted through carbon trading markets that incentivise ecological behaviour for multinational corporations. For its critics, neoliberalism has entrenched and extended global inequality, dispossession and poverty.The global crises of the last fifteen years - from the 2008 financial crash, the 2016 Brexit vote and election of Donald Trump to the current COVID-19 pandemic - have been accompanied by proclamations about the end of neoliberalism. During these crises, even the governments most committed to non-interventionism have deviated from neoliberal diktat and suspended the primacy of the market. However, we keep being surprised by what Colin Crouch evocatively calls "the strange non-death of neoliberalism" (2011). To understand neoliberalism's persistence, we need to understand how neoliberal ideologies are embedded in institutions, imaginaries and everyday lives.My project argues that to explain neoliberalism's longevity, we must understand its affective dimensions, psychic powers and embodied effects. We need to grasp how these ideas shape our desires and our ways of living together; how they may feel attractive, exciting or appealing while at the same time operating through mechanisms of exclusion, violence and disposession. My critical political economy approach complements existing sociological works on economic imaginaries (Beckert, 2016) and on the experience of economic orders (Dardot and Laval, 2010) with insights from psychoanalytical theory. I examine neoliberalism not just as an economic doctrine, but also as an affective infrastructure that mobilises fantasies of self-realisation, self-control, and self-transcendence. My project has three branches. First, it complements the existing scholarship on neoliberal thought (Mirowski and Plehwe, 2009) by reinterpreting canonical texts of neoliberal theory (Hayek 2011a; 2011b; 2013; Becker 1976) through a psychoanalytically-informed theoretical framework. Second, I am interested in how tropes found in neoliberal economic theory (like the idea of risk-taking as self-realisation) are invested and transformed in popular culture; I will publish my research on two entrepreneurs close to the neoliberal movement, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. Lastly, the project will also extend the claims made in my thesis via a broader scope of analysis that incorporates new sources that highlight how economics is practiced and imagined today, specifically recent pop-economics bestsellers (like the Freakonomics series) and discursive representations of financial instruments (like the VIX, a volatility index popularised as the 'fear index'). The overall aim of the project is to denaturalise so as to re-politicise these discursive productions, and thereby to practically contribute to the elaboration of new alternative imaginaries on the left.It will do so by disseminating my research in academic circles via the publication of three peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, as well as the organisation of a conference at the University of East Anglia. To reach non-academic audiences, I will develop blogpost and podcast series about economic imaginaries with the Political Economy Research Centre. I will also organise a stakeholder workshop about neoliberal calls for the privatisation of space at the World Transformed 2023 Festival in partnership with the think-tank Common Wealth.

我的研究主要涉及新自由主义的当代话语，这是一种社会经济学说，与玛格丽特·撒切尔和罗纳德·里根等政治家以及弗里德里希·哈耶克和米尔顿·弗里德曼等经济学家联系在一起。总的来说，新自由主义的特点是相信市场的首要地位，相信竞争的好处，相信限制政府干预和个人经济自由。对于新自由主义思想家来说，市场可以解决所有的社会问题。例如，新自由主义者认为，可以通过激励跨国公司的生态行为的碳交易市场来避免气候灾难。对于批评者来说，新自由主义巩固并扩大了全球的不平等、剥夺和贫困。过去15年的全球危机——从2008年金融危机、2016年英国脱欧公投和唐纳德·特朗普当选到当前的COVID-19大流行——都伴随着新自由主义终结的宣告。在这些危机中，即使是最致力于不干预主义的政府也偏离了新自由主义的指令，暂停了市场的首要地位。然而，我们一直对科林·克劳奇（Colin Crouch）令人回味的“新自由主义奇怪的未死”（2011）感到惊讶。为了理解新自由主义的持久性，我们需要理解新自由主义意识形态是如何嵌入制度、想象和日常生活中的。我的项目认为，要解释新自由主义的长寿，我们必须理解它的情感维度、精神力量和具体影响。我们需要把握这些观念如何塑造我们的欲望和共同生活的方式；他们如何感觉有吸引力，令人兴奋或吸引人，同时通过排斥，暴力和处置机制运作。我的批判性政治经济学方法补充了现有的关于经济想象（Beckert, 2016）和经济秩序经验（Dardot和Laval， 2010）的社会学著作，并提供了来自精神分析理论的见解。我不仅将新自由主义视为一种经济学说，还将其视为一种情感基础设施，它激发了人们对自我实现、自我控制和自我超越的幻想。我的项目有三个分支。首先，它通过精神分析的理论框架重新解释新自由主义理论的经典文本（Hayek 2011a; 2011b; 2013; Becker 1976），补充了现有的新自由主义思想学术（Mirowski and Plehwe, 2009）。其次，我感兴趣的是，新自由主义经济理论中的比喻（比如将冒险视为自我实现的想法）是如何在流行文化中被投资和转化的；我将发表我对两位接近新自由主义运动的企业家彼得·蒂尔（Peter Thiel）和埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）的研究。最后，该项目还将通过更广泛的分析范围来扩展我在论文中提出的主张，这些分析纳入了强调当今经济学是如何实践和想象的新来源，特别是最近的流行经济学畅销书（如《魔鬼经济学》系列）和金融工具的话语表示（如波动率指数VIX，一种被称为“恐惧指数”的波动率指数）。该项目的总体目标是使这些话语作品变性，从而重新政治化，从而在实际中为左派的新替代想象的阐述做出贡献。它将通过在主要期刊上发表三篇同行评议的文章，以及在东安格利亚大学组织一次会议，在学术界传播我的研究成果来实现这一目标。为了吸引非学术界的读者，我将与政治经济研究中心（Political Economy Research Centre）一起开发一系列关于经济想象的博客文章和播客。我还将与智库共同财富（Common Wealth）合作，在“世界转型2023年”节上组织一个有关新自由主义呼吁空间私有化的利益相关者研讨会。