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8/10/2019 Springer Springer - The Violence of Neoliberalism http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/springer-springer-the-violence-of-neoliberalism 1/21  " The Violence of Neoliberalism Simon Springer Department of Geography, University of Victoria [email protected] *Forthcoming in the Handbook of Neoliberalism *  Abstract  As austerity measures intensify in the wake of the most recent global financial crisis, it is becoming ever more clear that neoliberalization exhibits a distinct relational connection with  violence. This is not an admonishment of the protests that continue to swell, but rather a recognition that these movements are in fact pushing back against the violent measures that have frustrated and demoralized everyday existence under neoliberalism. There is now considerable room for scepticism with regard to the Ôrising tides lifts all boatsÕ discourse that is perpetuated by proponents of neoliberal ideology, as the free market has categorically failed at producing a harmonious global village. Promises of utopia are confronted with the stark dystopian realities that exist in a growing number of countries where neoliberalization has not resulted in greater peace and prosperity, but in a profound and unmistakable encounter with violence. This paper questions how neoliberalizing processes often comes suffused with processes of othering that result in conflict, arguing that neoliberalism itself might be productively understood as a particular form of violence. Keywords Conflict, Dystopia, Geography, Neoliberalism, Othering, Violence Introduction  The ascent of neoliberalism can be understood as a particular form of anxiety, a disquiet born in the wake of the Second World War when the atrocities of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and the Soviet Union fostered a belief that government intervention trampled personal freedoms and thereby unleashed indescribable slaughter (Mirowski and Plehwe 2008). There is some truth to be found in this concern, but the response that followed has exhibited its own violent tendencies. The Mont Pelerin Society, the originary neoliberal think-tank, responded by resurrecting classical liberalismÕs three basic tenets. First, a concentrated focus on the individual, who was viewed as the most qualified to communicate his or her desires,  whereby society should be reoriented towards removing obstacles that hinder this goal. Second, free markets were considered the most proficient means for advancing self-reliance,

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Page 1: Springer Springer - The Violence of Neoliberalism

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The Violence of Neoliberalism

Simon SpringerDepartment of Geography, University of Victoria

[email protected]

*Forthcoming in the Handbook of Neoliberalism *

 Abstract As austerity measures intensify in the wake of the most recent global financial crisis, it isbecoming ever more clear that neoliberalization exhibits a distinct relational connection with violence. This is not an admonishment of the protests that continue to swell, but rather arecognition that these movements are in fact pushing back against the violent measures thathave frustrated and demoralized everyday existence under neoliberalism. There is nowconsiderable room for scepticism with regard to the Ôrising tides lifts all boatsÕ discourse thatis perpetuated by proponents of neoliberal ideology, as the free market has categoricallyfailed at producing a harmonious global village. Promises of utopia are confronted with the

stark dystopian realities that exist in a growing number of countries where neoliberalizationhas not resulted in greater peace and prosperity, but in a profound and unmistakableencounter with violence. This paper questions how neoliberalizing processes often comessuffused with processes of othering that result in conflict, arguing that neoliberalism itselfmight be productively understood as a particular form of violence.

KeywordsConflict, Dystopia, Geography, Neoliberalism, Othering, Violence

Introduction

 The ascent of neoliberalism can be understood as a particular form of anxiety, a disquiet

born in the wake of the Second World War when the atrocities of Nazi Germany, Fascist

Italy, and the Soviet Union fostered a belief that government intervention trampled personal

freedoms and thereby unleashed indescribable slaughter (Mirowski and Plehwe 2008). There

is some truth to be found in this concern, but the response that followed has exhibited its

own violent tendencies. The Mont Pelerin Society, the originary neoliberal think-tank,

responded by resurrecting classical liberalismÕs three basic tenets. First, a concentrated focus

on the individual, who was viewed as the most qualified to communicate his or her desires,

 whereby society should be reoriented towards removing obstacles that hinder this goal.

Second, free markets were considered the most proficient means for advancing self-reliance,

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 whereby individuals could pursue their needs through the mechanism of price. Finally, a

faith in a non-interventionist state that would emphasize and maintain competitive markets

and guarantee individual rights shaped around a property regime (Hackworth 2007; Plehwe

and Walpen 2006). From the geopolitical context of the warÕs aftermath, the origins of

neoliberalism as a political ideology can be understood as reactionary to violence. In short,

neoliberals conceived that violence could be curbed by a return to Enlightenment thinking

and its explicit basis in advancing the merits of individualism.

 This historical context is ironic insofar as structural adjustment, fiscal austerity, and

free trade, the basic principles of neoliberalism, are now Ôaugmented by the direct use of

military forceÕ (Roberts et al. 2003), where the Ôinvisible handÕ of the global free market is

increasingly clenched into the Ôvisible fistÕ of the United States military. The relationship

between capital accumulation and war is of course longstanding (Harvey 1985), and the

peaceful division that early neoliberals pursued for their economic agenda demonstrated a

certain naivety. While not all wars are decidedly capitalist, it is difficult to envisage conditions

 wherein an economic ideology like neoliberalism could not come attendant to violence

insofar as it seeks a global domain, supports universal assumptions, and suppresses

heterogeneity as individuals are remade according to the normative image of Ôneoliberal

proper personhoodÕ (Kingfisher 2007). Either the lessons of colonialism were entirely

overlooked by the Mont Pelerin Society, or they uncritically embraced its narrative appeal to

the supposed higher purpose of the Ôwhite manÕs burdenÕ. Just as colonialism paved a road to

hell with ostensibly good intentions, the neoliberal imagination of an eventual harmonious

global village now demonstrates much the same. Embedded within such promises of utopia

are the dystopian realities that exist in a number of countries, where neoliberalization has not

produced greater peace, but a profound and often ruinous encounter with violence.

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 The historical record indicates that the years under neoliberalism have been

characterized by recurrent crises and deepening divisions between and within the worldÕs

nations on ethno-religious grounds. Although in some instances poverty has arguably been

alleviated or at least not gotten any worse under neoliberalism, in many more contexts

poverty remains painfully acute, while inequality has undeniably increased both within and

between cities, states, and regions (Wade 2003; Harvey 2005). There is nascent literature that

is quickly gathering momentum, which attempts to make these connections between

neoliberalism and violence more explicit (Auyero 2000; Borras and Ross 2007; Chatterjee

2009; Coleman 2007; Collier 2008; Goldstein 2005; Marchand 2004). From this growing

concern comes increasing recognition for the idea that the imposition of neoliberal austerity

measures may actually promote conditions of increased impoverishment that subsequently

provide multiple opportunities for violent conflict (Bourdieu 1998; Bourgois 2001; Farmer

2004; Uvin 2003; Wacquant 2009). Within my own work I have attempted to demonstrate an

urgent need to build linkages between the violence occurring in various sites undergoing

neoliberalization, and to identify threads of commonality within these diverse spaces so that

an emancipatory agenda of transnational scope may potentially begin to emerge (Springer

2011b, 2015).

 Although acknowledgement for the violence of neoliberalism continues to grow, it is

important to recognize how simplistic and problematic it is to assume uniformity across the

 various constellations of violent geographies that are occurring in neoliberalizing contexts.

Such an approach serves to reinforce the authority of neoliberal discourse by continuing to

circulate the idea that neoliberalism as a particular model of statecraft is unavoidable, a

criticism Gibson-Graham (1996) make more generally with regard to capitalism. Likewise, to

treat the material expression of violence only through its directly observable manifestation is

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a reductionist appraisal. This view disregards the complexity of the endless entanglements of

social relations, and further ignores the future possibilities of violence (Nordstrom 2004).

 When we bear witness to violence, what we are seeing is not a ÔthingÕ, but a moment with a

past, present, and future that is determined by its elaborate relations with other moments of

social process (Springer 2011c). The material ÔactÕ of violence itself is merely a confluence in

the flows of oppressive social relations, and one that is persistently marked with absolutist

accounts of space and time, when instead violence should be recognized as being temporally

dispersed through a whole series of Òtroubling geographiesÓ (Gregory 2006). Nonetheless,

understanding the resonances of violence within the now orthodox political economic model

of neoliberalism Ð however disparate, protean, and variegated Ð is of critical importance to

social justice. Only through a conceptualization of fluidity and process can we begin to

recognize how violence and neoliberalism might actually converge.

I begin this chapter by identifying how processes of othering coincide and become a

central component of neoliberal logic by providing it with the discursive tools to realize its

heterogeneous ideals. In the following section I describe how attention to the relationality of

space and time allow us to recognize neoliberalism and violence as mutually reinforcing

moments of social process where it becomes very difficult to disentangle these two

phenomena. I then turn my attention towards the exclusions of neoliberalism, where I

consider how the exceptional violence of this process comes to form the rule. Here I identify

neoliberalism having produced a state of exception through its particular version of

sovereign authority and dire consequences this results in for the downtrodden and

dispossessed. I then conclude on hopeful note by insisting that collectively we are powerful

actors who have the radical potential to resist, transform, and ultimately undo neoliberalism.

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Neoliberal Othering

 Although mainstream examinations of conflict theory have a tendency to focus on ÔlocalÕ

origins by invoking the idea of ÔbackwardÕ cultural practices as the most suitable explanations

for violence (see Huntington 1996; Kaplan 2000), this reading problematically overlooks the

influence of ideology and economics. The geographical imagination of violence vis-ˆ-vis

neoliberalism treats violence as an externality, a wrong-headed vision that engenders

Orientalist ideas. Such othering discourses insidiously posit ÔlocalÕ cultures as being wholly

responsible for any ensuing bloodshed following neoliberalization, thus ignoring the

mutability and relationality of the ÔglobalÕ political economy of violence. Here we can look

for guidance to the influence of Said (2003), who has made significant contributions to a

broader interest in how geographical representations and practices produced notions of ÔusÕ

and ÔthemÕ, or ÔSelfÕ and ÔOtherÕ. In a contemporary sense, othering licenses further

neoliberal reforms, as neoliberalization is positioned as a ÔcivilizingÕ enterprise in the face of

any purported ÔsavageryÕ (Springer 2009a). Neoliberalism is rarely interrogated and is

typically either openly endorsed (see Fukuyama 1992) or tacitly accepted (see Sen 1999) as

both the sine qua non of human development and the cure-all for violence. Such othering

places neoliberalism Ôunder erasureÕ, where we are encouraged to approach neoliberal ideas

 without a critical lens.

Popular geopolitics has repeatedly imagined ÔAfricanÕ, ÔAsianÕ and ÔIslamicÕ cultures

as being somehow ingrained with a supposedly ÔnaturalÕ inclination towards violence, a

tendency that has intensified in the context of the ongoing Ôwar on terrorÕ. The public

performance of such ideas feeds into particular geostrategic aims, thus allowing them to

gather momentum and develop a certain form of ÔcommonsenseÕ validity. The imaginative

geographies of such Orientalism are creations that meld difference and distance through a

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sequence of spatializations that not only assign particular people as ÔOtherÕ, but construct

ÔourÕ space of the familiar as distinct and separate from ÔtheirÕ unfamiliar space that lies

beyond (Gregory 2004; Said 2003). This is the exact discourse that colonialism rallied to

erect its authority in the past, and in the current conjuncture, Orientalism can be considered

as neoliberalismÕs latitude insofar as othering enables a powerful discursive space for

promoting the ideals of the free market. Such a connection between neoliberalism and

Orientalism may appear counter-intuitive when neoliberalism is accepted at face value. After

all, the neoliberal doctrine envisages itself as the champion of a liberal internationalism

centered around the vision of a single human race peacefully united by a common code of

conduct featuring deregulated markets, free trade, shared legal norms and states that feature

civic liberties, electoral processes, and representative institutions (Gowen 2001).

Nonetheless, an appreciation for neoliberalizationÕs capacity to promote inequality,

exacerbate poverty, license authoritarianism, and advance a litany of other social ills is

growing (Bourdieu 1998; DumŽnil and LŽvy 2011; Giroux 2004; Goldberg 2009; MacEwan

1999; Springer 2008). Such recognition hints at the numerous ÔerasuresÕ neoliberal ideologues

have attempted to engage through neoliberalismÕs discursive concealment.

Klein (2007) has persuasively argued that natural disasters have been used as

opportunities to push through unpopular neoliberal reforms on peoples and societies too

disoriented to protect their interests. In their absence, othering lays the necessary foundation

for manufactured ÔshocksÕ in procuring openings for neoliberalism. Similar to the originary

state-level neoliberal trial run in Chile (Challies and Murray 2008), the current sequence of

imperialism-cum-neoliberalization in the Middle East is exemplary of American geopolitical

intervention and a variety of militarism rooted in the Orientalist idea of folding distance into

difference. Would the mere presence of ISIS, as problematic as this organization is, have

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been enough to galvanize AmericaÕs authorization of air strikes had their fragmented

activities and threats occurred on Canadian soil rather than in Iraq and Syria? We can only

speculate, but given the wholesale devastation that ensues, without a significant dose of

Orientalism the idea of launching missiles and dropping bombs on a country in all

probability would not get off the ground and a different strategy would be devised to ensure

minimal civilian casualties. Similarly, it was Ôunknown/farawayÕ Santiago and not

Ôfamiliar/nearbyÕ Ottawa that played host to WashingtonÕs subversions in the lead up to the

Ôother 9/11Õ in 1973, when the neoliberal experiment was first realized with the installation

of Pinochet.

 Attention to how particular geographies, including imaginative ones, are Ôproduced

by multiple, often unnoticed, space-making and space-changing processesÕ is of critical

importance (Sparke 2005). Sparke (2007) argues that such appreciation is itself an ethical

commitment to consider the exclusions  Ð which can be read in the double sense of Ôunder

erasureÕ and ÔotheringÕ Ð in the production of any given geographical truth claims. The

geography of neoliberalism involves recognizing its variegated expressions (Peck and Tickell

2002), imperialist impulses (Escobar 2004; Hart 2006), and authoritarian responses

(Canterbury 2005; Springer 2009c), all of which dispel the theoretical tall-tales of a smooth-

space, flat-earth where neoliberalism rolls-out across the globe without friction or resistance.

 To deal with the inconsistencies between these material interpretations and a doctrine

allegedly premised on peace, othering practices are employed to indemnify ÔaberrantÕ,

ÔviolentÕ, and ÔlocalÕ cultures in explaining away any failings of neoliberalism, thereby leaving

its class project unscathed (Springer 2009a). Orientalism is used to legitimize the

doublespeak neoliberal proponents invoke in the global distribution of violence (Sparke

2007), to code the violence of anti-neoliberal resistance, and to geographically allocate and

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place blame for violence by asserting that violence sits in particular, ÔOrientalÕ places

(Springer 2011c). The responsibility of critical theory under this Ônew imperialismÕ (Harvey

2003) is thus to illuminate such erasures so that the othering of neoliberalism is laid bare and

therein may be refused.

Momentous Violence

In my attempt to link neoliberalism to violence one might be inclined to ask if the former

actually causes the latter and how that could be proven. My response is that the question

itself is largely irrelevant. The empirical record reveals a noticeable upswing in inequality

under neoliberalism (Wade 2003), which Harvey (2005) regards as neoliberalismÕs principal

substantive achievement. Inequality alone is about measuring disparity, however qualified,

 while the link between inequality and violence is typically considered as an appraisal of the

ÔvalidityÕ of a causal relationship, where the link may or may not be understood to take on

multiple dimensions including temporally, spatiality, economics, politics, culture and so

forth. The point is that violence and inequality are mutually constitutive. Inequality

precipitates violence, and violence gives rise to further inequalities. Accordingly, if we wish

to attenuate the devastating and disaffecting effects of either, we need to rid ourselves of a

calculative model and instead consider violence and inequality as an integral system or

particular moment . ÒThinking in terms of momentsÓ, Hartsock (2006: 176) argues, can allow

scholars Òto take account of discontinuities and incommensurabilities without losing sight of

the presence of a social system within which these features are embeddedÓ. Although the

enduring phenomenon of violence is fragmented by variations, strains and aberrations as

part of its processual nature, within the current moment of neoliberalism, violence is all too

often a reflection of the chaotic landscapes of globalized capitalism.

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 At different moments capitalism creates particular kinds of agents who become

capable of certain kinds of violence dependent upon both their distinctive geohistorical

milieu and their situation within its hierarchy. It is in this distinction of moments  that we can

come to understand the correlations between violence and neoliberalism. By exploring the

particular histories and distinctive geographies that define individual neoliberalizations,

scholars can begin to shed light on the phantasmagoria of violence that is projected within

neoliberalismÕs wider rationality of power. In other words, it is important to recognize and

start working through how the moment of neoliberalism and the moment  of violence converge.

 The intention here is not to produce a Cartesian map, wherein the same interpretation is

replicated in each and every context of neoliberalization. Neoliberalism should not be read as

an all-powerful and self-reproducing logic. Lending such an infallible appearance serves to

empower the idea that neoliberalism is beyond reproach. It is imperative to contest the

neoliberalism-as-monolithism argument for failing to recognize space and time as open and

always becoming (Springer 2011a, 2014). In focusing solely on an externally constructed

neoliberalism we neglect the local geographies of existing political economic circumstances

and institutional frameworks, wherein the vagaries of societal influences and individual

agency play a key role in the circulation and (re)production of neoliberalism. In short, to

focus exclusively on external forces is to risk producing over-generalized accounts of a

singular and omnipresent neoliberalism.

 While acknowledging the problematics of a monolithic reading of neoliberalism it is

also critically important to acknowledge that an intensive focus on internal phenomena is

also limiting. Without attention to the relational connections of neoliberalism across space

 we cannot adequately addresses the essential features and important connections of

neoliberalism as a global project (Peck and Tickell 2002). This Ôlarger conversationÕ of

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neoliberalism is considered important in relating similar constellations of experiences across

 various locations as a potential basis for emancipation (Brand and Wissen 2005;

Featherstone 2005; Routledge 2003; Springer 2008; Willis et al. 2008). Retaining the

abstraction of a ÔglobalÕ neoliberalism allows phenomena like inequality and poverty, which

are experienced across multiple sites, to find a point of similarity, a moment . In contrast, a

refusal of the global scope of neoliberalism hinders attempts at developing and maintaining

solidarity beyond the micro-politics of the ÔlocalÕ. For that reason, conceptualizing

neoliberalism requires awareness for the complex connections between local and extralocal

forces functioning within the global political economy (Brenner and Theodore 2002; Peck

2001). To understand the violence of neoliberalism then, we must be willing to sift through

and account for the traction of violence in the contexts of its particular hybridized and

modified instances of neoliberalization, while at the same time preserving the notion of

neoliberalism as a Òradical theoretical sloganÓ (Peck 2004: 403). The latter can be employed

as a reference point in opposing violence and bringing together distinct struggles against the

controlling, abusive, and punishing structures of capitalism.

It was only over the course of a succession of setbacks, interruptions, and false starts

that neoliberalism as a marginal utopian idea began to emerge as an established doctrine that

has congealed as a diverse yet related series of neoliberalizations (Peck 2010; England and

 Ward 2007). Part of the ÔsuccessÕ of neoliberalism as the common language of global

discourse is that it is based on a series of nostrums that once employed foretell that free

market forces will lead to a thriving future, where all of the worldÕs peoples will be unified in

an equitable and harmonious Ôglobal villageÕ. Put differently, the neoliberal apostles are false

prophets of emancipation, proselytizing peace as they wage war. So while I want to argue

that understanding neoliberal violence requires attention to particular specificities that are

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conditional and context dependent, the violence of neoliberalism also has a relational

character that extends across multiple sites, having been entwined within particular

discourses and (re)productions of space (Lefebvre 1991). Acknowledgement of this dialectic

moment brings a broader significance to neoliberalismÕs encounter with violence, where

contextually specific patterns of violence that are associated with unique social events,

political circumstances, cultural processes, and spatial transformations can also be read more

broadly across a array of sites undertaking neoliberalizing processes all across the globe.

 While the inflections, cadences, and pulses of neoliberalism will always have some measure

of idiosyncrasy in different contexts, from moment to moment the funeral march remains

the same. Concealed beneath the allure of sirens, neoliberalism is actually a cacophony of

 violence and conflict, where there is profound dissonance between what it promises and

 what it ultimately delivers.

The Neoliberal State of Exception

 The continuing exclusions of neoliberalism should motivate us to get involved and galvanize

our collective strength to stand in opposition. But beyond the desire for compassion, an

affinity that never takes for granted our shared humanity (Day 2005), lurks the threat of

complacency, the shadow of indifference, and the menace of detachment among those of us

 who have not yet  been subjected to our homes being forcibly taken by armed bandits known

as police, to our childrenÕs curiosity languishing because a basic education is an expense we

cannot shoulder, or to our spouses dying in our arms having been denied adequate health

care. The examples are not mere abstractions. Each of these scenarios has been revealed to

me with disturbing regularity during the course of my ongoing research in Cambodia

(Springer 2009b, 2010, 2011a, 2013, 2015). What those of us still on the winning side of

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neoliberalism do not anticipate or account for Ð and let there be no mistake that this is a

system that unquestionably produces winners and losers Ð is that in this aban donment of our

ÒOthersÓ, we produce a state of exception (Ong 2006). The relation of the ban is nothing if

not ambiguous, and to abandon someone is not simply to ignore or forsake them. As

 Agamben (1998: 72) explains, ÒWhat has been banned is delivered over to its own

separateness and, at the same time, consigned to the mercy of the one who abandons it Ð at

once excluded and included, removed and at the same time captured.Ó In other words, to

ban is to create a state of exception , wherein the Òexception does not subtract itself from the

rule; rather, the rule, suspending itself, gives rise to the exception and, maintaining itself in

relation to the exception, first constitutes itself as a ruleÓ (Agamben 1998: 14). Consequently,

it is through the construction of a new neoliberal normative frame Ð wherein malice and

malevolence become the rule Ð that the exceptional violence of neoliberalism is transformed

into exemplary violence.

Exceptional violence always runs the risk of becoming exemplary, or so routinized,

quotidian, ordinary, and banal that we no longer feel an emotional response to its appearance

precisely because it is the norm. We may recognize it as violence, but we remain indifferent.

Exemplary violence is most effective when it is no longer recognized as violence at all, a

destructive form of unconsciousness that Bourdieu (2001) referred to as Ôsymbolic violenceÕ.

It is in this mundanity of the everyday that we find meaning in ArendtÕs (1963) Òbanality of

evilÓ. HistoryÕs profoundest moments of iniquity are not performed by extremists or

psychopaths, but by ordinary people Ð potentially you and me Ð as we come to accept the

premises of the existing order. The banality of evil is thus an erasure that deprives us of our

ability to recognize violence as a moment  that is at once both exceptional and exemplary. As

 Agamben (1998, 14) explains, an exception Òdoes not limit itself to distinguishing what is

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inside from what is outside but instead traces a threshold (the state of exception) between

the two, on the basis of which outside and inside, the normal situation and chaos, enter into

those complex topological relationsÓ. The exception and the example accordingly always

exist in a dialectic relationship, and it is for this reason that the ongoing abandonment of the

ÔOtherÕ under neoliberalism comes to define the sovereign authority of neoliberalism as a

political economic order.

 As our political capacities knowingly and unknowingly embrace the social

disarticulation and anomie of neoliberalismÕs dystopia of individualism, the violence of this

process deepens. Within neoliberalismÕs imaginative geographies of an affluent global village,

 what is not spoken is the desire for a certain and particular homogeneity, an impulse to

remake the ÔOtherÕ in ÔourÕ image, whereby the space of Ôthe peculiarÕ, Ôthe exoticÕ, Ôthe

bizarreÕ is continually (re)produced through the relation of the ban. But this is a relation that

 Agamben (1998: 21) knows well to be one where Òoutside and inside, become

indistinguishableÓ, and thus, as with all fantasies and desires, at the heart of neoliberalismÕs

chimera of strength and confidence lurks a profound sense of anxiety (Gregory 1995). This

is not a disquiet without consequence, but one that licenses particular violent geographies in

ensuring that the Òtableau of queernessÓ (Said 2003) never disrupts its visions of global

sovereignty. The ominous specter of the banality of evil is signaled by the juxtaposition

between a panacean fantasy of a Ônew world orderÕ and the sheer magnitude of violence that

permeates our contemporary world. This is a routinized, clichŽd, hackneyed, and mundane

force, an evil whose potential resides within each and every one of us, and whose hostility is

nurtured, accumulated, and consumed through the othering of neoliberalism.

Fantasy and reality collide under neoliberalization, and our involvement in this

process allows for the normative entrenchment of violence against the marginalized, the

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dispossessed, the poor, the downtrodden, the homeless, the unemployed, the disaffected,

and the ÔOtherÕ. Yet this necropolitics of violence is not the conclusion of neoliberalismÕs

 violent fantasy; rather, it is its genesis. The violence of neoliberalism is continuing to unravel

the world. In this grave realization, and in echoing Marx, critical scholarship must not merely

seek to interpret the world; it must seek to change it by aligning its theory and practice on all

occasions and in all instances to the service of social justice. By seeking to shine a light on

the variety of ways in which the processes of neoliberalization are saturated with both

exceptional and exemplary violence, we open our geographical imaginations to the possibility

of (re)producing space in ways that make possible a transformative and emancipatory

politics. This moment of ÔEmpireÕ (Hardt and Negri 2000) demands such courage of our

scholarship. As members of the assemblage we call humanity, we each have a moral

obligation to stand up and speak out as an act of solidarity with those whom the violence of

neoliberalism has targeted, and those who have been silenced by the complacency of a stifled

collective imagination wherein neoliberalism is considered an inexorable force.

Conclusion

 The rolling-back of the state is a rationale of neoliberal governance, not an informed choice

of the autonomous agents that comprise the nation. Thus, resistance to neoliberalism often

provokes a more despotic outlook as states move to ensure that reforms are pushed through,

particularly if the changes are rapid and a legitimizing discourse for neoliberalization has not

already become widely circulated. This is why effective subjectification to neoliberal ideals

and the production of ÔotheringÕ discourses become a hallmark of neoliberalization. Yet

complete acquiescence to neoliberalism is improbable for two reasons. First, every single

member of a given society is never going to completely accept of agree with the dominant

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  "&

discourses. Thus, we so often find that those marginalized by neoliberal reforms are actively

engaged in continuous struggles to have their voices heard, which is unfortunately just as

frequently met with state violence in response. Second, social processes have an essential

temporality, meaning that they continue to unfold. While notions of temporal stasis and

spatial uniformity pervade popular accounts of a fully integrated Ôglobal villageÕ (see

Friedman 1999), these ideas are fundamentally reliant upon a problematic assignment of

monolithism and inevitability to neoliberalism, as though space-time has only one possible

trajectory (Massey 2005). In the popular imagination, there is little acknowledgment of the

discursive work that goes into the (re)production and distribution of neoliberal ideas in a

diverse range of contexts (Plehwe and Walpen 2006). As the utopian discourse of

neoliberalism rubs up against empirical realities Ð such as heightened inequality and ongoing

poverty Ð citizens are more likely to express discontent with particular characteristics of

neoliberalization, most obviously the reduction of essential social provisions such as

healthcare and education. Resorting to violence accordingly becomes one of the few

disciplinary options available to governments transformed by neoliberalization as they

attempt to retain legitimacy, where ÔotheringÕ becomes a primary mechanism in the

articulation of power. In short, those who donÕt fit the mold of a proper neoliberal subject

are treated as enemies. 

 The rising tide against neoliberalism and the geographically dispersed protests that

signify and support such a movement necessarily occur in terrains that always exceed

neoliberalism (Hart 2008; Leitner et al. 2007). Consequently we can never attribute

neoliberalism to a direct calculable expression. Although the idea of a distinct singular form

of neoliberalism is prominent in the popular imagination, such a formulaic interpretation of

a pure neoliberalism is an untenable idea that has been altogether dismissed by geographers

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  "'

(Peck and Tickell 2002; Springer 2011a). Neoliberalism is a theoretical abstraction that rubs

up against geographical limits, and consequently its Ôactually existingÕ circumstances are never

paradigmatic. Yet it is nonetheless enormously important to recognize how the evolving

geographies of protest, resistance, and contestation can be interpreted as a shared sense of

betrayal with what can be broadly defined as Ôneoliberal policy goalsÕ. The implication of this

reading is a growing recognition for transnational solidarity as being inseparable from ÔlocalÕ

movements, which prompts a relational understanding of both resistance to, and the

 violence of neoliberalism (Featherstone 2005; Springer 2011b; Wainwright and Kim 2008).

Some of the most noticeable outcomes of neoliberalization are increased class tensions,

intensified policing, increased surveillance, and heightened security measures, which

inevitably arise from strained relations. So while there are variegations and mutations to

account for in neoliberalismÕs travels, there is also a need to appreciate the similar deleterious

outcomes that all too frequently arise.

 The relationship between neoliberalism and violence is directly related to the system

of rule that neoliberalism constructs, justifies, and defends in advancing its hegemonies of

ideology, of policy and program, of state form, of governmentality, and ultimately of

discourse (Springer 2012). Neoliberalism is a context in which the establishment,

maintenance, and extension of hierarchical orderings of social relations are re-created,

sustained, and intensified, where processes of ÔotheringÕ loom large. Accordingly,

neoliberalization should be regarded as integral to violence inasmuch as it generates social

divisions within and across space. Yet the world as we see it today where the violence of

neoliberalism proceeds with a careless lack of restraint is neither necessary nor inevitable. By

increasing our shared understanding for the cruelty that neoliberalism engenders we set in

motion a process of awakening from the allure of market logic, a process that shatters the

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  "(

influence of anomie and sounds a death knell for neoliberal ideas. As exceptional violence

comes to form the rule, people around the world are becoming more acutely aware that

something is not right, and consequently we are becoming more willing to stand up for our

communities, for ourselves, and for ÔOthersÕ. Every time we refuse to sit idle before would

be evictors speculating on land, have the courage to protest exclusion from democratic

process, strike against an exploitative employer who denies a fair wage, or resist being

framed as violent savages incapable of agency, the rhizomes of emancipation grow stronger.

 There is a world to be won, and so long as we can come to recognize the reflection of

ÔOthersÕ within ourselves, we will prevail.

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