Episode 3.11: Beyond the Ruins of Neoliberalism – Wendy Brown

Interviewer: RAFAEL KHACHATURIAN. Over the course of decades, Neoliberalism has shifted from being an overt ideological position, explicitly arguing for the primacy of the market as a way to organize society, into a set of embedded assumptions and practices that govern much of our economy and politics. Political theorist WENDY BROWN has charted this process and the destruction left in its wake, as commitment to the social has given way to individualistic strategies for coping with market forces. In her discussion with fellow theorist Rafael Khachaturian, she describes the political disarray on both the right and left, even as Trumpism and its international equivalents seem resurgent, as well as the difficulty in general in exercising political control over the global financial system that neoliberalism built. But she also points to activism around the world that challenges entrenched power in its many forms and gives hope that a more equitable society, which achieves a more sustainable relationship with the natural world, is possible.