"This is a compelling, timely and thought–provoking collection. It brings into contact a range of phenomena often considered in isolation, and subjects them to sustained critical–geographical exploration. The materials covered here cross worlds and scales – the Global South and the Global North; from the psychotherapist′s couch to ethnodevelopment in Ecuador – and thereby reveal the entangled spaces, roles and subjectivities of professionals and activists under neoliberalism. It is essential reading for any critical scholar concerned about the extending and mutating reach of neoliberalism."
Chris Philo, Professor of Geography, University of Glasgow
"If there is any lingering doubt that geographers need to think about how the local, the state, and the global are interconnected, it should be dispelled in this provocative and compelling collection, a fresh approach to the everywhere but elusive concept of neoliberalism. Challenging us to think about the broad ramifications for professionalism and local activism, these authors are determined to make a difference to the real lives of people engaged in working the spaces of neoliberalism as they re–write subjectivity, local knowlege, sexuality, democracy and political agency. We can definitely add another notch to our understanding of the world."
Audrey Kobayashi, Professor of Geography, Queen′s University, Ontario
Introduction Liz Bondi and Nina Laurie 1
1 After Neoliberalism? Community Activism and Local Partnerships in Aotearoa New Zealand Wendy Larner and David Craig 9
2 Authority and Expertise: The Professionalisation of International Development and the Ordering of Dissent Uma Kothari 32
3 Dropping Out or Signing Up? The Professionalisation of Youth Travel Kate Simpson 54
4 Ethnodevelopment: Social Movements, Creating Experts and Professionalising Indigenous Knowledge in Ecuador Nina Laurie, Robert Andolina and Sarah Radcliffe 77
5 Working the Spaces of Neoliberal Subjectivity: Psychotherapeutic Technologies, Professionalisation and Counselling Liz Bondi 104
6 Desiring Sameness? The Rise of a Neoliberal Politics ofNormalisation Diane Richardson 122
7 Making Space for Neo–communitarianism ? The Third Sector, State and Civil Society in the UK Nicholas R Fyfe 143
8 Caught in the Middle: The State, NGOs, and the Limits to Grassroots Organizing Along the US Mexico Border Rebecca Dolhinow 164
9 The Experts Taught Us All We Know : Professionalisation and Knowledge in Nepalese Community Forestry Andrea J Nightingale 186
Commentaries
10 Working the Spaces of Neoliberalism Marcus Power 209
11 No Way Out? Incorporating and Restructuring the Voluntary Sector within Spaces of Neoliberalism Katy Jenkins 216
12 Professional Geographies Nicholas Blomley 222
13 Partners in Crime? Neoliberalism and the Production of New Political Subjectivities Cindi Katz 227
Index 236
Nina Laurie is Senior Lecturer in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at the University of Newcastle, UK. She works collaboratively with colleagues at CESU, San Simón University, Bolivia. Together with Robert Andolina and Sarah Radcliffe she is author of
Multi–ethnic Transnationalism: Indigenous Development in the Andes (forthcoming). She is also co–author of
Geographies of New Femininities? (1999).
Liz Bondi is Professor of Social Geography at the University of Edinburgh. She is founding editor of the journal Gender, Place and Culture, the co–author of Subjectivities, Knowledges and Feminist Geographies (2002) and co–editor of Emotional Geographies (2005).
Drawing on global research, this book argues that processes of professionalization form an integral part of the production of neoliberal spaces, with profound implications for political activism. It brings together original research from diverse contexts, including studies conducted in the Global South and the Global North, in order to enable key features of neoliberalisation to be understood more fully.
The book brings into focus tensions and connections between activism and processes of professionalisation in relation to neoliberalism. It illuminates links between the context of neoliberal restructuring and the ways in which professionalisation involves processes of representation, negotiation and embodiment as activism feeds into scaled up policy–making. In doing so, it elaborates how the spaces of neoliberalism are worked in two related senses: namely how neoliberalisation incorporates, co–opts, constrains and depletes activism; and how professional subjects inhabit and sometimes subvert the opportunities neoliberalisation opens up.