The Atlas network shifted from celebrating outsider status to pursuing academic legitimacy

Evidence

Initially, Atlas and its few associated think tanks were marginal organizations. They had no chance of recognition from better-established producers and diffusors of knowledge like universities. Their strategy was to play up the position of the outcast and insist on their own singularity. Over time, however, Atlas gained centrality and legitimacy in the transnational neoliberal community, and think tanks became locally institutionalized. As a consequence, a significant evolution took place. Instead of scorning academia, Atlas and the think tanks aspired to and embraced academic legitimacy. This happened first through the co-optation of academics sympathetic to the cause as well as through think tank leaders acquiring academic credentials, usually a PhD in economics. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 603

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the chapter on Atlas as a network hub and to broader literature on think tanks’ legitimacy strategies. — connects to: Exile intensified the Institute members’ prior outsider strategy of pursuing academic recognition — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 540; Award ceremonies functioned as a network-integration device for the Atlas movement — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 596; Atlas once cultivated academia before abandoning it for direct student outreach — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 569 (+2 more)
• CANDY: Fun fact: the outcast-playup phase of a now-influential think tank network is a neat inversion of typical origin stories.

Broader Connections

• Atlas once cultivated academia before abandoning it for direct student outreach #contradicts (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 569
• Atlas pivoted from attacking universities to funding free-market courses within them #qualifies (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 568
• Atlas workshops matured from policy promotion to think tank management strategy #corroborates (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 594