Neoliberalism can be studied despite mutating by tracking its institutions, members, and texts

Evidence

Acknowledgment of neoliberalism as a living, mutating entity makes it hard for people who are not historians to wrap their arms around the phenomenon, and prompts those seeking a three-by-five-card definition to throw up their hands in defeat. … As long as we possess similar multiple markers of participation and discernment of designated doctrines for the Neoliberal Thought Collective, from exclusive organizations like the MPS and certain designated think tanks, to denumerable membership lists to vade mecum texts covering keynote ideas and theories, to archival reflections of the principals, then a working characterization of neoliberalism is perfectly possible. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 144

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to science-studies approaches to ‘functional identity-within-change’ (like quantum physics across communities) and to the thought-collective concept the reader is explicitly tracking for this advanced critique. — connects to: The Mont Pèlerin Society provides a stable reference for identifying neoliberalism — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 108; Each discipline’s biases shape how it studies the neoliberal network — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 7; German neoliberalism persisted through institutional infrastructure even as the theory was forgotten. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 618
• DEFINE: Defines the methodological key to studying the Neoliberal Thought Collective as a mutating-but-identifiable entity.

Broader Connections

• Each discipline’s biases shape how it studies the neoliberal network #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 7