Rhetoric in Neoliberalism

herausgegeben von: Kim Hong Nguyen

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buchreihe : Rhetoric, Politics and Society

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This volume examines and applies classical and contemporary concepts of rhetorical theory and criticism to the context of late capitalism. Each contributor shows how discourse, its subjects, and power relations are irrevocably transformed by neoliberalism. The collection analyzes a range of discourses and phenomena in neoliberalism including: higher education reforms, computational culture, Occupy Wall Street protests, the activism of Warren Buffett, and the 9-11 Truth Movement. Together, these chapters explore the contemporary rhetorical production of homo economicus and the various ways in which neoliberalism has become a way of thinking, orienting, and organizing all aspects of life around economized metrics of individualized and individuated success. This book will be of use to students and scholars crossing the fields of media and communication, political science, and sociology.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Rhetoric in Neoliberalism

Abstract

There is a growing concern in the discipline of rhetorical studies about the credibility and public relevance of speech. Kathleen Hall Jamieson (1988) documents the decline in television coverage and newspaper reprinting of political speeches and the significant reduction in traditional forms of deliberation in favor of public discourse that is conversational and organized by personal narrative. Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee (2009) argue that the modern view of rhetoric as a form of manipulation is a key indication of the diminishing credibility of speech. Crowley and Hawhee and Jamieson all contrast this modern view of public speech to that of ancient Greco rhetorical values of copia, rhetorical invention, and altruistic citizenship in order to show that modern public speech has become increasingly functional and efficient, aimed at communicating as clearly as possible with the least number of words. Walter Ong (1982) describes how literate culture abstracts knowledge from the context in which and by whom it is produced, leading to neutral and abridged discursive formats like lists, statistics, facts, and how-to manuals. Bradford Vivian (2006) attributes the privileging of quotes that function as sound bites and other economical communicative practices to neoliberalism as a structural enterprise for media and cultural industries and as an ideology that promotes efficiency. Megan Foley (2012) argues that the circulation of sound bites is not indicative of a decline but rather demonstrates audience attachment to public speech in another truncated form. Whether the economization of speech is a symptom of the decline or rise, discourse in the contemporary era must be evaluated using new interpretative heuristics and ways of knowing to understand its value, effect, and magnitude.

Kim Hong Nguyen

Accountable to Whom? The Rhetorical Circulation of Neoliberal Discourse and Its Ambient Effects on Higher Education

Abstract

The chapter uses Ron Greene’s cartographic methodology and a sensibility toward what Thomas Rickert calls ambient rhetoric to explore shifts in the felt environment of higher education. It tracks the rhetorical circulation of educational discourse through its historical formation and analyzes this ambient rhetoric within recent policy changes at the California State University (CSU) and the State University of New York (SUNY) systems. The history is culled from deliberations about federally funded educational initiatives interwoven with popular discourse manifested in newspapers, magazines, and best-selling economic literature. Ultimately, the chapter reveals a transition in the underlying warrant for education policies from the national social good to international market competition and a transformation in its recipients from individuals with social needs to statistical populations with market needs.

Phillip Goodwin, Katrina Miller, Catherine Chaput

Warren Buffett’s Celebrity, Epideictic Ethos, and Neoliberal Humanitarianism

Abstract

Billionaire Warren Buffett’s rhetorical agency seemingly challenges neoliberalism. His public statements supporting tax increases on the rich and carrying for the poor seemingly denounce free-market capitalism. But Meister and Platt convincingly argue that Buffett’s rhetorical agency bolsters neoliberalism rather than opposing it. Grounding their analysis in epideictic ethos and celebrity status, Meister and Platt argue that Buffett symbolizes both wealth earned and the self-restraint to retain it, exemplifying neoliberalism as a system that maintains wealth among the wealthy. Buffett’s rhetorical agency fuses epideictic ethos with philanthropic celebrity; a type of neoliberal humanitarianism that ultimately protects wealth, fosters elitism, and champions wider social and economic distinctions.

Mark Meister, Carrie Anne Platt

Rhetorical Agency in a Neoliberal Age: Foucault, Power, Agency, and Ethos

Abstract

Rhetorical agency generally refers to the ability to speak, to express oneself, or to create rhetoric. This essay begins with a consideration of the classical Aristotelian concept of ethos as a mode of expressing and practicing rhetorical agency. Ethos speaks directly to the power of subjectivity and the potential of rhetorical discourse to produce social and political change. Michel Foucault presents a unique and considerable challenge to both classical and modern conceptions of ethos, and helps explain how and why our neoliberal moment complicates ethos as a function of rhetorical agency. In the end, I consider the Occupy Wall Street movement as a way to enact agency in a neoliberal moment.

Robert Danisch

The Capable American: Ethos, Pathos, and the Governance of Education

Abstract

Jay examines the use of Aristotle’s appeals of ethos and pathos in the rhetoric of President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, which is found in the Common Core State Standards Initiative’s official documents and public oratory shared in support of the initiative. Using the work of Michel Foucault, this chapter unpacks how responsibility is constructed not solely through logos (e.g. argumentation, statistics, facts) but through ethical and emotional appeals. This results in self-governed individuals with the power to implement the Common Core—state government officials and public school administrators—doing so out of sense of personal duty, not because they are ordered to by the Obama Administration.

Samuel M. Jay

Constitutive Rhetoric in the Age of Neoliberalism

Abstract

Constitutive rhetoric is a theory of speech regarding the ability of language and symbols to create a collective identity for an audience. Focusing on the emancipatory power of newly constituted identities, Seitz and Tennant explore how constitutive rhetoric functions in a neoliberal world, where generating identification around democratic principles such as equality and freedom is an increasingly futile proposition. The authors advance Jacques Rancière’s political theory of “dissensus” as an innovative conceptual framework for understanding the nature, limits, and rich potential of democratic constitutive rhetorical action as it actually occurs today. Through a brief concluding case study, Seitz and Tennant uncover the ways neoliberalism complicates traditional conceptions and practices of constitutive rhetoric and illustrate how Rancierean “dissensus” functions as a much-needed alternative.

David W. Seitz, Amanda Berardi Tennant

Branding Citizens: The Logic(s) of a Few Bad Apples

Abstract

This paper uses rhetorical assemblage to demonstrate how particular citizens are branded “bad apples” to protect state and economic practices that enable violence. This paper looks specifically at the media coverage of George Zimmerman (shooter of Trayvon Martin) and the Lt. Robert Bales (alleged shooter of 16 Afghan people) who are both deemed “bad apples.” The media contends that each man acted out of hyper-vigilance, racism, and/or mental illness, thus relieving the nation-state of any culpability in their actions at home or abroad. The paper, then, argues that the use of “the bad apple” occludes the neoliberal logics of personal responsibility, privatization, US exceptionalism, and protectionism that enable state violence inside and outside the USA.

Jennifer Wingard

The Psychotic Discourse of 9/11 Truth

Abstract

In a 2004 poll conducted by Zogby international, 49.3 percent of New York City residents said that some US leaders “knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001 and that they consciously failed to act” (“Americans Question Bush on 9/11 Intelligence” 2006). According to a New York Times–CBS News poll carried out in October 2006, only 16 percent of those surveyed thought the Bush administration was telling the truth about what it knew prior to September 11 about possible terrorist attacks on the USA (“Half of New Yorkers Believe” 2004). Fifty-three percent of respondents said that they thought the administration was hiding something. Twenty-eight percent thought the administration was mostly lying. A Scripps Survey Research Center-Ohio University poll carried out in July 2006 asked the more pointed question as to whether respondents thought 9/11 was an “inside job.” Thirty-six percent of respondents found it very or somewhat likely that “federal officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action to stop them ‘because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East’” (Hargrove and Stemple 2006). The press release for the poll notes that this 36 percent is slightly less than the 40 percent convinced that a lone gunman was not responsible for the death of President John F. Kennedy and the 38 percent who believe the government is withholding proof of the existence of extraterrestrial life. It also reports that those suspecting 9/11 was an inside job are more likely to get their news from the internet than from mainstream media sources, which is hardly surprising given the hundreds of websites devoted to investigating the day’s events, criticizing the official account, and finding patterns in facts scattered throughout and virtually ignored by the mainstream media.

Jodi Dean

Computational Culture and the New Platonism in Neoliberal Rhetoric

Abstract

This chapter proposes “New Platonism” as a way of describing rhetorical argument practices in the context of computational culture and neoliberal governmentality. An increasingly common rhetorical strategy, New Platonism features an enthymematic appeal premised in the presumption that there is only one possible, epistemologically sound solution to moral, social, and political problems, the very types of questions that Aristotle distinguished from philosophy and placed firmly within the domain of rhetoric. To wit, a cultural logic readily identified as Platonic is resurgent as a result of the contemporary social and material conditions, particularly computational culture and neoliberalism.

Gerald Voorhees

Erratum to: Rhetoric in Neoliberalism

Kim Hong Nguyen

Backmatter

Titel: Rhetoric in Neoliberalism
herausgegeben von: Kim Hong Nguyen
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-39850-1
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-39849-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39850-1