Neoliberal citizenship permits being shed or sacrificed in austerity

Evidence

The way these features of governance and human capital generate a citizen who is both integrated into and identified with the project of the economic health of a nation, a citizen who can be legitimately shed or sacrificed when necessary, especially in the context of austerity politics. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 141

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly extends the reader’s published piece on sacrifice as ritually stabilizing stratification: here postmodern austerity ‘sheds’ citizens without even the dignity of sacrificial recognition.
• XREF: connects to: Selling citizenship rights follows logically from core neoliberal premises yet was mostly rejected — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1874; Neoliberalism redefines citizenship as mere customerhood to justify consolidating power within the state. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 159; Neoliberalism treats citizenship as customerhood and rejects the night-watchman state — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2129 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Austerity transforms neoliberal rationality from freedom toward sacrifice. #expands (0.95) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 135
• Neoliberalism replaces the welfare state with a traffic-cop state #expands (0.75)
• Neoliberalism treats citizenship as customerhood and rejects the night-watchman state #corroborates (0.70) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2129