The Double Binds of Neoliberalism: Theory and Culture After 1968

In the wake of the new far-right populisms, the fragmentation of global narratives of progress, and the dismantling of economic globalization, there are signs that neoliberalism is beginning to enter its death throes or at least starting to fundamentally mutate. This provides us with a roughly fifty-year cycle with which to re-assess the rise and potential fall of neoliberalism. Using 1968 as one of the inaugural moments of this history, this interdisciplinary collection seeks to reassess the significance and legacy of the global 1968 uprisings from today’s vantage point. While these uprisings arguably helped bring an end to a number of forms of oppression, the period following them also saw the re-entrenchment of class power to a level not seen since the 1920s. Without drawing any simple or direct lines of causation, the sequence of the past fifty years reflects what could be termed a double bind or lose-lose scenario. Yet, particularly given the present-day indicators of a crisis of neoliberal hegemony, this volume argues that returning to 1968 today may offer critical and comparative resources for thinking a way out of our current impasse.