Neoliberalism has captured the term ‘modernisation’ as a cudgel in labor disputes.
Evidence
In fact, neoliberalism owns the word “modernisation” now. If you hear the word in news broadcasts, it is synonymous with neoliberalisation. Whenever there is a dispute — in, say, Royal Mail — the phrasing used is something like, “Royal Mail is trying to modernise, but its plans are opposed by workers”. But when they say “modernise”, they really mean “privatise” and “neoliberalise”. We saw this with Blairism: those who wanted to “modernise” really wanted to neoliberalise the Labour Party. Of course, if you are opposed to modernisation, you must be out of touch with reality and you immediately find yourself on the back foot. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1652
Categorization
- SEED: An essay angle: mapping how one politically loaded word (‘modernise’) gets redeployed as cover for dispossession across sectors.
- XREF: connects to: In news discourse ‘modernise’ now means ‘privatise and neoliberalise’. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1652; Neoliberal reason legitimates casting off labor that fails to aid macroeconomic growth. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 167; Neoliberal ideas reframed anti-union business positions as good judgment rather than reactionary politics — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1474 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- In news discourse ‘modernise’ now means ‘privatise and neoliberalise’.
#expands(0.95) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1652 - Neoliberal ideas reframed anti-union business positions as good judgment rather than reactionary politics
#expands(0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1474 - Neoliberal reason legitimates casting off labor that fails to aid macroeconomic growth.
#exemplifies(0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 167 - Neoliberalism exists to reverse modernity’s claims to self-determination
#expands(0.70) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 116