Interrogating the Neoliberal Lifecycle

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Introduction: Welcome to the Neoliberal Life Cycle!

   • Beverley Clack, Michele Paule

   Pages 1-16

3. Childhood, Youth, and Schooling

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

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   2. Personal Moral Autonomy, Responsibility and Choice: Do We Know What Our Cultural Discourses Are Doing to Young People’s Mental Health?

      • Philippa Donald

      Pages 19-38

   3. Boys from the Bronx, Men from Manhattan: Gender, Aspiration and Imagining a (Neoliberal) Future After High School in New York City

      • Patrick Alexander

      Pages 39-65

   4. Girl Trouble: Not the Ideal Neoliberal Subject

      • Michele Paule

      Pages 67-93

4. The University Under Neoliberalism

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 95-95

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   2. Paying for Success “Outside Your World”: Antagonising Neoliberal Higher Education

      • Louise Livesey

      Pages 97-126

   3. Universities: The Neoliberal Agenda

      • Bob Brecher

      Pages 127-142

5. Work, Success and Failure

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 143-143

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   2. Gender Equality, Austerity, Vulnerabilities and Resistance in the Spanish Neoliberal Life Cycle

      • Louise Grisoni, Sonia Ruiz

      Pages 145-167

   3. Towards a Manifesto: On the Love of Failure

      • Susan Crozier

      Pages 169-188

   4. ‘I Don’t Want to Live Too Long!’: Successful Aging and the Failure of Longevity in Japan

      • Jason Danely

      Pages 189-212

6. Death and Dying

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 213-213

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   2. Old Age and the Neoliberal Life Course

      • Susan Pickard

      Pages 215-234

   3. Death and Dying in “Third Way” Death Manuals: Shaping Life and Death After Neoliberalism

      • Beverley Clack

      Pages 235-252

7. Afterword

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 253-253

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   2. Afterword: Advice for a Life Beyond Neoliberalism?

      • Beverley Clack, Michele Paule

      Pages 255-262

8. Back Matter

   Pages 263-268

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In this timely collection, contributors from a number of disciplines discuss neoliberal visions of success, and the subsequent effects they have on the construction of the lifecycle. Frequently mentioned in popular political discourse, the notion of neoliberalism is often deployed as shorthand for the consensus that austerity is necessary and the hard-working individual can survive it. This volume unpicks and interrogates the term by engaging with the interface between the political ubiquity of neoliberal forms and its lived experience in neoliberal societies, cutting across a multiplicity of factors including gender, age, and access to education. Impressive in its wide scope and analysis, Interrogating the Neoliberal Lifecycle presents an informed discussion not only of the limits of the neoliberal paradigm but also of possible alternatives. 

• Neo-liberal self
• Consumerism
• Austerity
• Life-cycle
• Death
• Ageing

“This edited volume makes for an important contribution in the fields of gerontology, sociology, philosophy, and psychology, the main focus of this volume was the first world. … this volume would benefit both academics as well as policymakers from a range of disciplines as it provides various alternative perspectives to the ‘good and successful life’ … .” (Jagriti Gangopadhyay, Anthropology & Aging, Vol. 42 (1), 2021)

• Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK

  Beverley Clack

• Oxford Brookes University, Harcourt Hill Campus, Oxford, UK

  Michele Paule

Beverley Clack is Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Oxford Brookes University, UK. Her research applies feminist ideas to the philosophy of religion, and considering the uses of politics and psychoanalysis for a contemporary philosophy.

Michele Paule is Senior Lecturer in Culture, Media and Education at Oxford Brookes University, UK. Her research explores discourses of gender and youth in educational and media contexts, particularly issues relating to girlhood and power. 

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