Neoliberal welfare-state retreat expects everyone to act as financial self-managers
Evidence
Scholars including Brooke Harrington (2008), Randy Martin (2003), Paul Langley (2008), Rob Aitken (2007), Julia Ott (2011) and Louis Hyman (2011) have done the invaluable work of showing how investing, financial risk management and financial literacy have been sold to publics well beyond the financial sector, to such an extent that today, in an age of the neoliberal retreat of the welfare state and other modalities of collective insurance and wealth, we are all increasingly expected to understand ourselves as savvy financial actors, judiciously managing our material and immaterial assets in a world without guarantees. — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 35
Categorization
- XREF: Direct bridge to deWaard’s cultural argument — the subject position of the ‘investor-subject’ or ‘financial self’ is its core move. Also connects to Foucault’s governmentality literature. — connects to: Neoliberalism governs people by getting them to self-regulate toward economic ideals. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 38; Financialization redraws who supplies life’s basic needs, shifting welfare from state to markets — Natascha van der Zwan, Making Sense of Financialization, 64; Financialization replaced welfare-state collective security with individualized speculative insurance — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 92 (+4 more)
- QUESTION: Worth chasing: the historical mechanism by which financial literacy programs (‘Financial Peace University,’ 401k mandating) operationalized this expectation — could be an article.
Broader Connections
- Neoliberalism governs people by getting them to self-regulate toward economic ideals.
#corroborates(0.90) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 38 - Financialization redraws who supplies life’s basic needs, shifting welfare from state to markets
#expands(0.85) — Natascha van der Zwan, Making Sense of Financialization, 64 - Neoliberal restructuring converts collective public goods into individualized risk management
#expands(0.85) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 266 - Financialization replaced welfare-state collective security with individualized speculative insurance
#corroborates(0.80) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 92 - The neoliberal subject must constantly self-invest across all life domains
#expands(0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 360 - State retreat forced all economic classes into direct financial participation
#expands(0.75) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 160 - Neoliberalism replaces natural self-interest with governed self-investment tied to macroeconomic growth.
#corroborates(0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 167