Neoliberal precarity and primalization

A biosocial perspective on the age of insecurity, injustice, and unreason

Bibliographic Data

ID5609544
AuthorsJohn Bone (0000-0002-9569-6340, School of Social Sciences University of Aberdeen Aberdeen UK, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume72
Issue4
Pages1030-1045
Publication date2021-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-4446.12884
PMID34374077
OpenAlexW3186682212
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited55

In light of the observed rise in social instability and populist politics that has emerged recently even in some of the world's oldest and presumed stable democracies, this paper reappraises the role of the neoliberal political and economic consensus in fermenting popular discontent. While this is very well trodden ground the paper approaches the issues from a wholly new direction, specifically addressing how exposure to the destabilizing conditions of the present can be seen to have negatively impacted on the neurological functioning of many of the disenchanted and distressed of the current era, generating chronic negative emotional arousal and an associated impact on the capacity for rational thought and conduct. This condition of mental and emotional fugue, it is argued, has also rendered growing numbers more susceptible to marginal and radicalizing discourses, largely extended and amplified via social media, and not least the emotionally charged overtures of populist politicians. Against a backdrop of increasing insecurity, transformative changes to work and living conditions precipitated by neoliberal policy and the digital revolution, together with the epochal crisis presented by the global pandemic, it is argued that the task of understanding the deep and fundamental causes of social and political fracture have rarely been more urgent

Aesthetics · Biosocial theory · Development economics · Economics · Injustice · Neoliberalism (international relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Precarity · Sociology · Transformative learning · Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies · Employment and Welfare Studies · Gender Studies · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Psychology · Social Psychology