Authoritarian Neoliberalism: Philosophies, Practices, Processes (Section 3)

Call for papers for the 10th Pan-European Conference on International Relations, 7–10 September 2016, Izmir, Turkey.

Despite the severity of the 2007-8 global economic crisis and the widespread aversion to austerity policies that have been unleashed especially but not only in Europe, neoliberalism remains the dominant mode of governance across the world. What makes neoliberalism so resilient, enabling it to reproduce itself in the face of popular opposition? This section explores the means by which neoliberal governance has to varying degrees consolidated itself since the crisis by focusing on its ‘authoritarian’ incarnations. The term ‘authoritarian neoliberalism’ was recently introduced to political economy scholarship, and highlights the ways in which today’s neoliberalism tends to reinforce and rely upon practices that seek to marginalise, discipline and control dissenting social groups rather than strive for their consent or co-optation. Such practices include the development of policies in the name of ‘the market’ into an increasingly wide range of domains, the growing resort to constitutional and legal mechanisms to prevent future generations from overturning contemporary forms of governance, and the extensive mobilisation of coercive state apparatuses for the repression of oppositional social forces and groups. As befitting a dense and variegated set of processes across world society, scholarship on authoritarian neoliberalism has already covered Eurozone governance, clampdowns on resistance movements (e.g. Gezi Park), post-crisis transformations in East Asia, and emergent surveillance cultures. Accordingly, this section seeks contributions on the wide range of processes, global or more localised, which advance our understanding of authoritarian neoliberalism and how it has emerged as an important conditioning factor for multiple forms of international relations.

We welcome individual papers and panel/roundtable proposals. Proposals (with abstracts of 200 words maximum) must be submitted via the online submission system. Please indicate in your application that your proposal is submitted for Section 3. The closing date for paper, panel, and roundtable proposals is midnight (CET) on Friday 8 January 2016.

If you have any questions regarding the section, please contact the section chairs Dr Ian Bruff (ianbruff@gmail.com) and Dr Cemal Burak Tansel (c.b.tansel@sheffield.ac.uk).

For more information, please visit the EISA 2016 website.