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Liberalism in Neoliberal Times Alejandro Abraham-Hamanoiel is a “With its precise and sharp analysis, Liberalism in Neoliberal Times EDITED BY: Liberalism in Neoliberal Times part-time lecturer at Middlesex is a much-needed overview of the consequences of liberalism and Alejandro Abraham-Hamanoiel Dimensions, Contradictions, Limits University. neoliberalism, providing a deeper critical analysis of the world Des Freedman in which we live.” Edited by Alejandro Abraham-Hamanoiel, Gholam Khiabany Des Freedman is Professor of Media Des Freedman, Gholam Khiabany, Kate Nash and Communications at Goldsmiths, Domenico Losurdo, University of Urbino Kate Nash, and Julian Petley University of London. Julian Petley “This is an exceptionally valuable collection of essays. What does it mean to be liberal Gholam Khiabany is Reader in Media They throw a bright and refreshing light on the emancipatory in neoliberal conditions? In and Communications at Goldsmiths, capacities of liberalism, across human rights, education, this collection of short essays, University of London. media, gender and much else. These capacities stand in sharp contributors from sociology, politics contrast with the crushing reality of a hegemonic neoliberalism and media and communications argue Kate Nash is Professor of Sociology that promises ‘freedom’, but delivers inequality and stifling for the continued relevance of and Co-Director of the Centre for the conformity underpinned by acquisitiveness, debt, and overwork.” liberals and liberalism in a seemingly Study of Global Media and Democracy at illiberal age. The authors interrogate Goldsmiths, University of London. Alfredo Saad Filho, SOAS University of London the theories, histories, practices LIBERALISM and contradictions of liberalism in Julian Petley is Professor of Screen Contributors relation to four central areas of Media and Journalism in the Department Alejandro Abraham-Hamanoiel, Patrick Ainley, Abdullahi An-Na’im, public life: human rights, ethnicity of Social Sciences, Media and Michael Bailey, Haim Bresheeth, Basak Çal, David Chandler, and gender, education and the media. Communications at Brunel University. William Davies, Costas Douzinas, Natalie Fenton, Des Freedman, IN They contend that liberalism in all Roberto Gargarella, Priyamvada Gopal, Jonathan Hardy, its forms continues to underpin This book is based on the strand, John Holmwood, Ratna Kapur, Gholam Khiabany, Ray Kiely, specific institutions such as the ‘Liberalism in Neoliberal Times’ Monika Krause, Deepa Kumar, Arun Kundnani, Colin Leys, university, the free press, the courts that first ran on the openDemocracy Howard Littler, Kathleen Lynch, Robert W. McChesney, and parliamentary democracy, and that website www.opendemocracy.net Nivedita Menon, Toby Miller, Kate Nash, Joan Pedro-Carañana, NEOLIBERAL TIMES liberal ideas are regularly mobilised Julian Petley, Anne Phillips, Jonathan Rosenhead, in areas such as counter-terrorism, Annabelle Sreberny, John Steel, Michael Wayne, Milly Williamson DIMENSIONS, CONTRADICTIONS, LIMITS minority rights, privacy and the pursuit of knowledge. They grapple with the transformations in, as well as the transformative aspects of, liberalism and highlight both its liberating and www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press limiting capacities. We may not agree on much but we can certainly agree that an understanding of liberalism is simply too important to be left to the liberals. Cover design by Francesca Riley Distributed by the MIT Press This is a pre-print accepted manuscript version of the original title from Goldsmiths Press http://www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press/ Liberalism in Neoliberal Times: Dimensions, Contradictions, Limits Edited by Alejandro Abraham-Hamanoiel, Des Freedman, Gholam Khiabany, Kate Nash and Julian Petley This is a pre-print accepted manuscript version of the original title from Goldsmiths Press http://www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press/ Contents 1. Introduction Gholam Khiabany 2. What is ‘Neo’ about Neoliberalism? Will Davies Section I: Liberalism and Human Rights 3. Human rights, markets, states, and movements Kate Nash 4. Human rights: from universalism to pragmatism David Chandler 5. Human rights and the paradoxes of liberalism Costas Douzinas 6. Rights and power: illiberal constitutions of Latin America Roberto Gargarella 7. Rights. What are they good for? Nivedita Menon 8. Sexual subalterns, human rights and the limits of the liberal imaginary Ratna Kapur 9. Human rights and its inherent liberal relativism Abdullahi An-Naim 10. Who is the human in human rights? Anne Phillips 11. The European Court of Human Rights: would Marx have endorsed it? Başak Çalı 12. Intervention - imperialism or human rights? Ray Kiely 13. The role of 'best examples' in human rights Monika Krause Section II: Liberalism and Media 14. The modalities of media liberalism Julian Petley 15. Liberalism and the media Robert W. McChesney This is a pre-print accepted manuscript version of the original title from Goldsmiths Press http://www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press/ 16. Liberal legacies and media reform after neoliberalism Jonathan Hardy 17. Liberal reform and normativity in media analysis John Steel 18. Liberalism, the media and the NHS Colin Leys 19. Charlie Hebdo tragedy: free speech and its broader contexts Des Freedman 20. Latin American media and the shortcomings of liberalism Alejandro Abraham-Hamanoiel 21. The best of times and the worst of times - dissent, surveillance and the limits of the liberal state Natalie Fenton Section III: Liberalism and Education 22. Patrimonial capitalism re-booted and the end of the liberal university John Holmwood 23. When liberals fail to defend academic freedom Priyamvada Gopal 24. Apprentice or student? The new old choice for young people Patrick Ainley 25. New managerialism in education: the organisational form of neoliberalism Kathleen Lynch 26. The liberal arts in neoliberal times Toby Miller 27. Neoliberalism and the End of Education Michael Wayne 28. Freedom of Speech is always under attack in Privileged White Man Land Howard Littler 29. Prevent Education? Jonathan Rosenhead 30. Social Science Inc John Holmwood 31. The strange death of the liberal university Michael Bailey 32. A dialogue between Enlightenment liberals and neoliberal elites on the idea of the university Joan Pedro-Carañana This is a pre-print accepted manuscript version of the original title from Goldsmiths Press http://www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press/ Section IV: Liberalism, Race and Gender 33. Liberalism and gender Milly Williamson 34. Zionism and liberalism: complementary or contradictory? Haim Bresheeth 35. Ending racial oppression means transcending the limits of liberal politics Arun Kundnani 36. Liberalism’s Spawn: Imperialist Feminism from the 19th Century to the War on Terror Deepa Kumar 37. Who exactly is the "we" that liberalism talks about? Annabelle Sreberny This is a pre-print accepted manuscript version of the original title from Goldsmiths Press http://www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press/ 1 Introduction Gholam Khiabany Raymond Williams once suggested that the term ‘liberal has, at first sight, so clear a political meaning that some of its further associations are puzzling’. This, as Williams demonstrated, is partly because the word itself has a long and fascinating history that dates back to the 14th century. The original uses of ‘liberal’ were mostly positive. Liberal was a mark of distinction, a free man in contradistinction with those who were not; liberal arts was a reference to skills appropriate for men who had means and status; liberal also came to be defined as generous, open-minded and unorthodox. The distinction, from its very first usage, was all about class, privilege and status. However, ‘liberal’ also had, and still retains, negative meanings. For example, cultural and social conservatives still associate ‘liberal’ with unrestrained and undisciplined attitudes and behaviour. Taking liberties is pejorative, as is a ‘liberal’ reading/attitude to facts and figures1. In the realm of politics the term is just as complex and puzzling. On the one hand, being ‘liberal’ has been regarded as being open-minded, progressive or even radical, while, on the other hand, liberals are attacked for either being insufficiently radical (from the left) or being too progressive (such as in the US). The prevailing definition of liberalism (as an ideology, political philosophy and tradition) has historically revolved around tolerance, progress, humanitarianism, objectivity, respect for and promotion of reason, democracy and human rights. To be considered a ‘liberal’ (in this sense) can still be seen as a positive thing. Yet despite receiving a very good press throughout its history, liberalism has also been subject to This is a pre-print accepted manuscript version of the original title from Goldsmiths Press http://www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press/ passionate and sustained critiques by the left and the illiberal. For the latter, liberalism has gone too far; for the former, it has never gone far enough. Raymond Williams, for example, argues that liberalism, while referring to a ‘mixture of liberating and limiting ideas’, is ‘essentially, a doctrine of possessive individualism’ and that it is, therefore, ‘in fundamental conflict not only with socialist but with most strictly social theories.’2 In the opening chapter of this collection, Will Davies argues that the basic premise of liberal thought is the equality of individuals before the law – a conception that stresses the negative immunity of citizens from political intervention and coercion.
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