Macquarie University

Neoliberalism and Its Discontents - FOAR707

This unit introduces key themes and theorists in contemporary social and political theory. In particular, it will explore competing diagnoses and responses to the winding back of the post-war compromises between democratic states and corporate capitalism. Rather than taking a serial approach to a study of social and political theories, the unit will focus on their, at times diametrically opposed, configurations of this broad problem complex. In an epoch in which neoliberal agendas have both provoked, and perhaps also been facilitated by, the surge of populist politics across the globe, we look to contemporary social and political theories to help us make sense of new developments, to diagnose their costs and unravel future potentials. Can social democratic reformism survive the era of Trump, Brexit and Hanson? Organised as a workshop series, the unit will draw from leading theorists such as: Agamben, Balibar, Boltanski, Brown, Chakrabarty, Fraser, Foucault, Habermas, Honneth. Examining a problematic that is of foundational importance in much current social and political research, this unit is relevant to students across the humanities and social sciences. It will extend and complement the existing Mres units SOCI703, ‘Social Theory and Policy’, POIR704 ‘Global Political Economy’ and can be taken as a progression or stand-alone unit.