Neoliberalism survived by commodifying minority difference rather than opposing it

Evidence

Will Kymlicka suggests a mutually transformative relationship between neoliberalism and the multicultural contexts in which it operates, what he calls “a dense field of social relationships” that condition neoliberalism’s impact. He records how multiculturalism began with the increasing incorporation of minority rights by liberal states in the West, enshrining recognition of difference within a system where state regulation and intervention were recognized tools used to curb the effects of markets’ cyclical flux. With the rise of neoliberalism in the 1980s, multiculturalism was initially seen as “unjustified interference in the market in response to ‘special interests,’ ” a sort of extension of the welfare system neoliberals opposed and a misuse of government funds. Yet the survival of multiculturalism in the teeth of this attack has to do less with its own politically compromised nature than with a new attitude among neoliberals, who gradually came to see the market potential of multiculturalism. If interventionist social liberalism could use multiculturalism as a way to better integrate minorities into nations, surely it was possible to use the same identitarian impulses to integrate them into global markets. Thus, according to Kymlicka, the aim became to draw on the unique, saleable characteristics of minorities to create commodities for markets and to extend the reach of such markets using the cultural knowledge minorities could bring to the table. In short, the idea was to create “not a tolerant national citizen who is concerned for the disadvantaged in her own society, but a cosmopolitan market actor who can compete effectively across state boundaries.” — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 185

Categorization

• DEFINE: flagged by the selector, no supporting note recorded
• XREF: connects to: Neoliberal urban governance produces racially differentiated poverty through market mechanisms — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 5; Neoliberalism has ended as a hegemonic project despite institutional persistence — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1840