Much has been written about neoliberal political ideologies and economic policies over the past half century. At its core, neoliberalism advocates for limited government intervention in the economy and emphasizes the importance of free markets, deregulation, privatization, and individualism. Proponents maintain that these policies promote economic efficiency and individual freedom, but critics assert that they have pronounced detrimental effects on social equity, public services, and the environment. This edited volume delves into what could be understood as the hidden injuries of neoliberalism. The eight authors examine the consequences of neoliberal policies. They shed light on how a neoliberal agenda reshaped societies, caused suffering, and privileged individualism at the expense of collective well-being. The authors explore grassroots strategies of resistance and emancipation. In doing so, they argue for the need to rethink the public and common good and harness the often overlooked emotional and affective dimensions of political theory. The result is a thought-provoking examination of the profound impact of neoliberalism on individuals, societies, and the common good. Recommended. Graduate students and faculty.

Choice Reviews

The volume edited by Laura Quintana and Nuria Sánchez Madrid reads like a guide into our common malaise: everyone suffers from being an individual in neoliberalism. The suffering is self-imposed, it entered deep in our psyches, it is socially unmediated – because society, proverbially, does not exist. Our failures, as well as our resistances are a matter of our privatized self-management. Under neoliberalism, we are obligated to freedom without a social reality. This books seeks to show how and why this happened. It is a brilliant description of the neoliberal mind, culture of damage, homo economicus pedagogy fuelling global conservative mobilizations. Quintana and Sánchez Madrid gathered Latin American and Spanish scholars whose southern voices provide a different perspective – alarming and at the same time necessary, functioning almost like a wake-up call.

Adriana Zaharijevic, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade