Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Neoliberalism, Inequality, and the Erosion of Social Well-being

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Caring for Souls in a Neoliberal Age

Part of the book series: New Approaches to Religion and Power ((NARP))

Abstract

In this chapter, Rogers-Vaughn identifies neoliberalism as an adaptive, reflexive, cultural process that continually morphs to reflect and transform the cultures in which it is embedded. Tracing the history of neoliberal thought from 1920 to the present, he provides a framework for understanding neoliberalization as a cultural project that collapses economic, social, and political spheres, permeating all areas of discourse and profoundly impacting the way we relate to ourselves and each other. He argues that neoliberal societies, being founded on principles of competition and inequality, both enhance violence in society and promote isolated individualism, resulting in social fragmentation and varied forms of suffering. Rogers-Vaughn also draws attention to the ways in which postmodern theories have been complicit with neoliberalism, calling for an integration of Marx’s critique of capitalism with Foucault’s analysis of governmentality.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 19.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bernays, E. (1928/2005). Propaganda. Brooklyn, NY: Ig Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boas, T. C., & Gans-Morse, J. (2009). Neoliberalism: From new liberal philosophy to anti-liberal slogan. Studies in Comparative International Development, 44(2), 137–161.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boltanski, L, & Chiapello, E. (1999/2007). The new spirit of capitalism (Gregory Elliott, Trans.). London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, W. (1995). States of injury: Power and freedom in late modernity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, W. (2015). Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism’s stealth revolution. Brooklyn, NY: Zone Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butt, R. (1981, May 1). Mrs. Thatcher: The first two years. The Sunday Times. Retrieved August 6, 2015, from http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104475

  • Centeno, M. A., & Cohen, J. N. (2012). The arc of neoliberalism. Annual Review of Sociology, 38, 317–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, W. E. (1999). Assembling the left. Boundary, 2, 26(3), 47–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, W. E. (2013). The fragility of things: Self-organizing processes, neoliberal fantasies, and democratic activism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Crossley, J. G. (2012). Jesus in an age of neoliberalism: Quests, scholarship and ideology. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dardot, P., & Laval, C. (2009/2013). The new way of the world: On neo-liberal society (Gregory Elliott, Trans.). London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, W. (2014). The limits of neoliberalism: Authority, sovereignty and the logic of competition. London: SAGE Publications.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dean, J. (2009). Democracy and other neoliberal fantasies: Communicative capitalism and left politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • DuFour, D.-R. (2003/2008). The art of shrinking heads: On the new servitude of the liberated in the age of total capitalism (David Macey, Trans.). Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duggan, L. (2003). The twilight of equality? Neoliberalism, cultural politics, and the attack on democracy. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duménil, G., & Lévy, D. (2011). The crisis of neoliberalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eagleton, T. (1996). The illusions of postmodernism. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Florida, R. (2002/2012). The rise of the creative class: Revisited. New York, NY: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1979/2008). In M. Senellart (Ed.), The birth of biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France, 1978-1979 (Graham Burchell, Trans.). New York, NY: Picador.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, N. (1997). Justice interruptus: Critical reflections on the “postsocialist” condition. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, N. (2009). Feminism, capitalism and the cunning of history. New Left Review, 56(March/April), 97–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, N. (2013a). Fortunes of feminism: From state-managed capitalism to neoliberal crisis. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, N. (2013b, October 13). How feminism became capitalism’s handmaiden—And how to reclaim it. The Guardian. Retrieved February 28, 2016, from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/14/feminism-capitalist-handmaiden-neoliberal

  • Fraser, S. (2015). The age of acquiescence: The life and death of American resistance to organized wealth and power. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, M. (1951). Neo-liberalism and its prospects. Farmand, 17, 89–93 Retrieved May 17, 2015, from http://0055d26.netsolhost.com/friedman/pdfs/other_commentary/Farmand.02.17.1951.pdf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, M. (1970, September). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved January 11, 2014, from http://www.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/cst/facdevelop/missiondrivencit/Friedman1stpage.pdf

  • George, S. (2000). A short history of neoliberalism: Twenty years of elite economics and emerging opportunities for structural change. In W. Bello, N. Bullard, & K. Malhotra (Eds.), Global finance: New thinking on regulating speculative capital markets (pp. 27–35). London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert, D. (2015). The American class structure in an age of growing inequality (9th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilens, M. (2012). Affluence & influence: Economic inequality and political power in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press and the Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilens, M., & Page, B. I. (2014). Testing theories of American politics: Elites, interest groups, and average citizens. Perspectives on Politics, 12(3), 564–581.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giroux, S. S. (2010). Sade’s revenge: Racial neoliberalism and the sovereignty of negation. Patterns of Prejudice, 44(1), 1–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gray, J. (1998). False dawn: The delusions of global capitalism. New York, NY: The New Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hacker, J. S., & Pierson, P. (2010). Winner-take-all politics: How Washington made the rich richer—And turned its back on the middle class. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S. (2011). The neoliberal revolution: Thatcher, Blair, Cameron—The long march of neoliberalism continues. Soundings, 48, 9–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Häring, N., & Douglas, N. (2012). Economists and the powerful: Convenient theories, distorted facts, ample rewards. London: Anthem Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (1990). The condition of postmodernity: An enquiry into the origins of cultural change. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayek, F. A. (1944/2007). In B. Caldwell (Ed.), The road to serfdom: Text and documents, the definitive edition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hedges, C. (2009). Empire of illusion: The end of literacy and the triumph of spectacle. New York, NY: Nation Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, D. S. (2012). Masters of the universe: Hayek, Friedman, and the birth of neoliberal politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keynes, J. M. (1936/2008). The general theory of employment, interest and money. La Vergne, TN: BN Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazarus, N. (2011). The postcolonial unconscious. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Loo, D. (2011). Globalization and the demolition of society. Glendale, CA: Larkmead Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mann, G. (2013). Disassembly required: A field guide to actually existing capitalism. Edinburgh: AK Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marmot, M. (2004). The status syndrome: How social standing affects our health and longevity. New York, NY: Times Books, Henry Holt and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGuigan, J. (2009). Cool capitalism. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mirowski, P. (2013). Never let a serious crisis go to waste: How neoliberalism survived the financial meltdown. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, S. A. (1993). Hope and dread in psychoanalysis. New York, NY: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2011). Growing income inequality in OECD countries: What drives it and how can policy tackle it? Paris, France: OECD Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2012). Divided we stand: Why inequality keeps rising. Paris, France: OECD Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Panitch, L., & Gindin, S. (2012). The making of global capitalism: The political economy of American empire. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peck, J. (2010). Constructions of neoliberal reason. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Peters, M. A. (2001). Poststructuralism, Marxism, and neoliberalism: Between theory and politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piketty, T., & Saez, E. (2003). Income inequality in the United States, 1913-1998. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1), 1–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reid-Henry, S. (2015). The political origins of inequality: Why a more equal world is better for us all. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rushkoff, D. (2013). Present shock: When everything happens now. New York, NY: Current.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saad-Filho, A., & Johnston, D. (Eds.). (2005). Neoliberalism: A critical reader. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saez, E. (2015, June). Income inequality in the United States: Tables and figures updated to 2014 in Excel format. Retrieved August 8, 2015 from http://eml.berkeley.edu/~saez/

  • Saez, E., & Zucman, G. (2014, October). Wealth inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from capitalized income tax data. (Working Paper 20625, National Bureau of Economic Research). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved August 8, 2015, from http://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/SaezZucman2014.pdf

  • Sommeiller, E., Price, M., & Wazeter, E. (2016). Income inequality in the U.S. by state, metropolitan area, and county. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved June 18, 2016, from http://www.epi.org/files/pdf/107100.pdf

  • Springer, S. (2010). Neoliberalism and geography: Expansions, variegations, formations. Geography Compass, 4(8), 1025–1038.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Springer, S. (2012). Neoliberalism as discourse: Between Foucauldian political economy and Marxian poststructuralism. Critical Discourse Studies, 9(2), 133–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steger, M. B., & Roy, R. K. (2010). Neoliberalism: A very short introduction. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tye, L. (1998). The father of spin: Edward L. Bernays and the birth of public relations. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Zon, H. (2013). The unholy alliance of neoliberalism and postmodernism. Vlaams Marxistisch Tijdschrift, 47(2), 110–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallach, L. M. (2013, December). The corporation invasion: Government by big business goes supranational. Le Monde Diplomatique [English edition]. Retrieved January 11, 2014, from http://mondediplo.com/2013/12/02tafta

  • Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2009). The spirit level: Why greater equality makes societies stronger. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Economic Forum. (2011, January). Global risks 2011 (6th ed.). Geneva: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wysong, E., Perrucci, R., & Wright, D. (2014). The new class society: Goodbye American dream? (4th ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

    Bruce Rogers-Vaughn

Authors
  1. Bruce Rogers-Vaughn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Rogers-Vaughn, B. (2016). Neoliberalism, Inequality, and the Erosion of Social Well-being. In: Caring for Souls in a Neoliberal Age. New Approaches to Religion and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55339-3_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation