Neoliberalism. A Navigation Guide for Educators

While the world we live in has always been changing, it appears that the last few decades have seen some truly remarkable changes that are as wide ranging as they have proved to be transformative. Some of these changes have indeed been positive. For example, we have seen a steady, notable decline in worldwide hunger and poverty levels, along with a concomitant increase in access to clean drinking water and electricity among poor communities across the world. Unfortunately, these few bright spots have been crowded out by the steady, relentless onslaught of negative developments that appear to diminish our collective hopes for a peaceful, socioecologically just and sustainable planet. So, for instance, while on the one hand, rampant commodification of the natural world has led to climate change, sixth mass extinction, and worldwide ecological ruin. At the same time, increasing wealth and income inequality, gig economy, weakening of labor protections and rights, and fraying of the social safety nets have decimated the middle class and made precarity of existence a fact of life for most people around the world. Scholars connect these momentous changes – both good and bad – with the unparalleled and dominance of global capitalism in the world today. Interestingly, while people may feel anxious about their present and even dread the future, this unease is often accompanied by a fatalistic sense of resignation that Mark Fisher memorably labeled as “capitalist realism” – an acceptance that there might not be an alternative to capitalism. Not surprisingly, the calls for change have, therefore, been mostly sporadic and scattered, and it appears difficult to imagine that alternative futures are not just desirable but also achievable. The capitalist realism rests on a “common sense” understanding of the world that has become increasingly normalized in most advanced capitalist societies. Though there are varied and complex reasons for this normalization, we hold the individuals and groups holding political-economic power as especially responsible for this development. This is because there is strong evidence that normalization of this “common sense” has helped the political-economic elite in advanced capitalist societies to enrich themselves often at the expense of the poor and marginalized, and maintain their cultural hegemony over the masses. Further, though there are notable exceptions, by and large the political-economic elite has actively contributed in decades long efforts to normalize this “common sense” among people of all socioeconomic backgrounds. This “common sense” rests on an unwieldy set of ideas that dictate how one must live and how best to build a prosperous and just society. Collectively, sociopolitical philosophers have labeled these ideas as NEOLIBERALISM. In the last few decades, neoliberalism has had a profound influence on shaping the “common sense” in almost every facet of our lives. Educators, in particular, have witnessed how neoliberal ideas have seeped into the “common sense” that dictates our understanding of education and the best ways to impart it the children. This “common sense” resides in a relatively new neoliberal language of schooling that is increasingly becoming the norm in hallways, offices and classrooms in the United States and many other advanced capitalist societies. This language is populated by words that are usually very familiar, but often have profound and adverse implications that are not always visible on the surface.