At the Core of Neoliberalism: A Critical Account of the Major Theories of Neoliberalism and an Analysis of the Neoliberal Subjectivity

Starting from the banal observation that the optimistic promises of our globalized neoliberal society clash with the undeniable truth of rampant economic inequality, poverty, anxiety and insecurity; and from the fact that few individuals manage to “success” in the ruthless and all-embracing mechanisms of competition and workfare of enterprises, I investigate what exactly is meant by “neoliberalism”. Thus, in the first part of this dissertation, I examine the most important theories and interpretations of neoliberalism. I acknowledge that the neo-Marxist and the neo-Foucauldian accounts are the most relevant interpretations of neoliberalism; yet I argue that they are not entirely compatible with each other. I underline the limits of several neo-Marxist accounts and support the hypothesis that a neo-Foucauldian perspective has more explanatory power as it discloses several peculiar points of neoliberalism. In particular, I argue that the Foucauldian analysis of the human capital theory paves the way for one of the most effective critique of neoliberalism today. In the second part of this dissertation, adopting a neo-Foucauldian perspective, I advance a critique of the neoliberal subjectivity, mainly analysing the field of contemporary Human Resource Management. Finally, in the third part, I acknowledge that the analyses I carried out in the second part of my dissertation, focused on the “microphysics” side of power, need to be constantly verified by concrete empirical in-depth macro-analyses of the society. In this sense, I recover the work of Antonio Gramsci and try to link it with that of Michel Foucault.