Beyond Bailouts: On the Politics of Education after Neoliberalism

The Obama presidency has been premised on a commitment to progressive social change in its a repudiation of unfettered free-market capitalism. It also signals the end of an era in which privatization, deregulation, and cut throat competition combined with a massive assault on the social state. While such reforms are welcome, they do not as yet go far enough in articulating economic change with an equally transformative cultural politics. This article seeks to broaden the parameters of the kind of ‘change’ that must be sought in relation to the current financial and credit crisis. We argue for the necessity of not only dismantling neoliberal economic policies and the shocking levels of inequality they have produced, but also for the necessity of transforming the culture of neoliberalism – the ideologies, values, identifications, and modes of consent – that enabled the ascendancy of market sovereignty. We seek to explore the pedagogical implications of such a project.