The Neoliberal Seduction

Governing-at-a-Distance, Community Development and the Battle over Financial Services Provision in Australia

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5877159
AutoresNeil Argent (0000-0002-4005-5837, University of New England, autor de correspondencia)
Año2005
Volumen43
Número1
Páginas29-39
Fecha de publicación2005-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGeographical Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1745-5863 • E-ISSN: 1745-5871
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1745-5871.2005.00296.x
OpenAlexW2037471410
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas23

This paper is concerned with understanding the reasons for the apparent success of neoliberalism: why the model of the ‘entrepreneurial, self-reliant community’ has been adopted so widely and readily across Australia. It does this through an analysis of two events in the restructuring of financial services provision in regional Australia during the 1990s and 2000s: the John Laws/Australian Bankers’ Association ‘cash for comment’ affair, and the rise of ‘alternative’ financial service providers in the wake of the major trading banks’ financial service withdrawal programmes of the 1990s. This analysis is conducted using the conceptual toolkit of the governmentality literature. In this context, the paper explores the notion of translation — how authorities, agencies, etc., exert control over distant entities, whether these entities be branch staff or a far-flung consumer market. In examining the often fragile character of ‘governing-at-a-distance’ in modern forms of rule, it is argued that some recent advances in the ‘geography of power’ have much to offer in highlighting both the important roles played by space and scale in the execution of power in its various guises and the ways in which resistance to the more regressive features of neoliberal philosophy and policy may best focus

Battle · Economics · Financial services · Geography · Governmentality · Hegemony · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Restructuring · Sociology · Healthcare innovation and challenges · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Public Administration · Finance