Race and the logic of radicalisation under neoliberalism

Bibliographic Data

ID2399433
AuthorsCameron Smith (0000-0003-0781-2725, Macquarie University, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume54
Issue1
Pages92-107
Publication date2018-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1440-7833 • E-ISSN: 1741-2978
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1440783318759093
OpenAlexW2789323761
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited20

I argue in this article that race - reconceptualised against the post-racial logic of racial neoliberalism as a material relationship rather than simply an identity - functions within the logic of radicalisation in Australian anti-terrorism to produce the conditions necessary for the reproduction of neoliberal capitalism. Taking theoretical cues from the arguments of David Theo Goldberg and Stuart Hall, I argue that the logic of radicalisation within this process mobilises the raced spectral figure of the essentially violent, extremist Muslim 'other' to two key ends: first, the invisibilisation of the political motivations and grievances underpinning the actions of those who commit terrorist violence; second, the reproduction of neoliberal capitalism through the fashioning of neoliberal subjectivities, the salving of collective anxieties at the effects of neoliberal restructuring via 'authoritarian populism', and the innovation of new - and augmentation of existing - opportunities for profit and accumulation

Capitalism · Neoliberalism (international relations) · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence