Based on insight into Foucault’s lectures on biopolitics, which consider the notion of neoliberalism for all future relationships between individuals and society, and the state and the economy, this book shows that the oligarchic model of politics and culture management today is a result of the rise and fall of mass political movements. The ideologies of the end of the twentieth century with which neo-liberalism perfectly establishes a balance are reflected in the combination of technoscience, rational choice and individualism. In this way, the rule is reversed into a cybernetic market as a management model. Today, transnational corporations control the states and their political subjects, with sovereignty rendered an illusion by the obsolescence of the modern project. Since the post-imperial order in the 21st century requires the expansion of total power rather than the fragmentation of freedom, it is necessary to explore the hybrid relationship between economics and politics. The corporate system of activities denotes a subject to all forms of organization of the state and society, from the trade unions to the universities, from institutionalized religion to social welfare and sport. The consequence of this can be seen in the disappearance of the essence of society. This book investigates the logic of world-historical progress from the cybernetic governance system and the new way of legitimizing capitalism in the 21st century to all forms of suspension of fundamental ideas which have marked the politics of modernity.

This book enters into a detailed discussion with many theorists of totalitarianism, and demands a re-evaluation of approaches that speak of mass manipulation of people and ideological control mechanisms. Žarko Paić shows that totalitarianism cannot be only a political-ideological problem, but rather a problem of the relationship between the technosphere, political power, and the narcissistic culture of the spectacle, which offers postmodern revisionism and forgetfulness of history as opposed to brave civic participation in the public sphere of acting together. He investigates the transformations the political and cultural processes linked to the notion of ‘totalitarianism’ undergo in the contemporary world, and the transformations (and differences) that this notion expresses today in comparison to what was realized by fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism in the 20th century.

Instead of the logic of representation of fashion in the light of modern society and postmodern culture, this book argues that contemporary fashion should be regarded as a performative-conceptual turn in the very core of body iconograms. The text presents a theoretical perspective of the phenomenon of fashion within fashion theory as establishing a new approach from visual semiotics. Through this lens, fashion, therefore, emerges as a visual code of contemporary societies and cultures in the networked matrices of hyperreality and visions of that coming time that will determine the combination of cybernetics, fetishism and transgression.

This book discusses the status of urban design as a disciplinary field and as a practice under the current and pervasive neoliberal regime. The main argument is that urban design has been wholly reshaped by neoliberalism. In this transformation, it has become a discipline that has neglected its original ethos – designing good cities – aligning its theory and practice with the sole profit-oriented objectives typical of advanced capitalist societies. The book draws on Marxism-inspired scholars for a conceptual analysis of how neoliberalism influenced the emergence of urbanism and urban design. It looks specifically at how, in urbanism's everyday dimensions, it is possible to find examples of resistance and emancipation. Based on empirical evidence, archival resources, and immersion in the socio-spatial reality of Santiago de Chile, the book illustrates the way neoliberalism compromises urban designers’ ethics and practices, and therefore how its theories become instrumental to the neoliberal transformation of urban society represented in contemporary urbanisms. It will be a valuable resource for academics and students in the fields of architecture, urban studies, sociology and geography.

Key events in Asia’s recent history have included the end of the Cold War, the Asian Economic Crisis and the ‘war on terror’. This is a critical assessment of these events, and of the interplay of security and economics in shaping political regimes and modifying market systems. Based on the notion that market systems are inherently political and conflict-ridden, this collection clarifies and explains the conflicts shaping the path of neoliberal globalization. Collectively it represents a disciplined and systematic address of four overarching questions: * What are the significant conflicts emanating from neoliberal globalization, and what are their implications? * What are the implications of new security concerns for these conflicts, and what are their impacts? * How are conflicts associated with globalization and security affecting social and economic policy directions? * Can these directions be reconciled with the reproduction of existing political regimes, or do they threaten their basis? In addressing these questions, the essays depict neoliberal globalization – in the new security context – as being able to accommodate a range of political regimes. This fascinating collection is a must-read for those with a professional interest in the region post-9/11. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal Critical Asian Studies.

The concept of the avant garde is highly contested, whether one consigns it to history or claims it for present-day or future uses. The first volume of The Idea of the Avant Garde – And What It Means Today provided a lively forum on the kinds of radical art theory and partisan practices that are possible in today’s world of global art markets and creative industry entrepreneurialism. This second volume presents the work of another 50 artists and writers, exploring the diverse ways that avant-gardism develops reflexive and experimental combinations of aesthetic and political praxis. The manifest strategies, temporalities, and genealogies of avant-garde art and politics are expressed through an international, intergenerational, and interdisciplinary convocation of ideas that covers the fields of film, video, architecture, visual art, art activism, literature, poetry, theatre, performance, intermedia and music.

In cinema studies today, rarely do we find a direct investigation into the culture of capitalism and how it has been refracted and fabricated in global cinema production under neoliberalism. However, the current economic crisis and the subsequent Wall Street bailout in 2008 have brought about a worldwide skepticism regarding the last four decades of economic restructuring and the culture that has accompanied it. In this edited volume, an international ensemble of scholars looks at neoliberalism, both as culture and political economy, in the various cinemas of the world. In essays encompassing the cinemas of Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the United States the authors outline how the culture and subjectivities engendered by neoliberalism have been variously performed, contested, and reinforced in these cinemas. The premise of this book is that the cultural and economic logic of neoliberalism, i.e., the radical financialization and market-driven calculations, of all facets of society are symptoms best understood by Marxist theory and its analysis of the central antagonisms and contradictions of capital. Taking a variety of approaches, ranging from political economy, ideological critique, the intersection of aesthetics and politics, social history and critical-cultural theory, this volume offers a fresh, broad-based Marxist analysis of contemporary film/media. Topics include: the global albeit antagonistic nature of neoliberal culture; the search for a new aesthetic and documentary language; the contestation between labor and capital in cultural producion; the political economy of hollywood, and questions of gender, sexuality, and the nation state in relation to neoliberalism.

In this collection, innovative and eminent social and policy analysts, including Colin Crouch, Anna Coote, Grahame Thompson and Ted Benton, challenge the failing but still dominant ideology and policies of neo-liberalism. The editors synthesise contributors’ ideas into a revised framework for social democracy; rooted in feminism, environmentalism, democratic equality and market accountability to civil society. This constructive and stimulating collection will be invaluable for those teaching, studying and campaigning for transformative political, economic and social policies.

In the context of the global decline of democracy, The Authoritarian Divide analyzes the tactics that populist leaders in Turkey, Venezuela, and Ecuador have used to polarize their countries. Political polarization is traditionally viewed as the result of competing left/right ideologies. In The Authoritarian Divide, Orçun Selçuk argues that, regardless of ideology, polarization is driven by dominant populist leaders who deliberately divide constituents by cultivating a dichotomy of inclusion and exclusion. This practice, known as affective leader polarization, stymies compromise and undermines the democratic process. Drawing on multiple qualitative and quantitative methodologies for support, as well as content from propaganda media such as public speeches, Muhtar Meetings, Aló Presidente, and Enlace Ciudadano, Selçuk details and analyzes the tactics used by three well-known populist leaders to fuel affective leader polarization: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, and Rafael Correa in Ecuador. Selçuk’s work provides a rubric for a better understanding of—and potential defense against—the rise in polarizing populism across the globe.

This collection focuses on the social consequences of neoliberal crises in Latin America. It includes a critical yet sympathetic analysis of ruling leftist governments in the region and discusses the larger constraints facing organized attempts to politically transform the Americas.