Behavioral economics as neoliberalism: Producing and governing homo economicus

McMahon, John M.

doi:10.1057/cpt.2014.14

Cited by 60 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Within neoliberal governmentality, the market becomes a site of verification for the state and the individual. The state enforces and regulates market logic, whereby social truths are reduced to that of market truths (McMahon 2015). The individual and her subjectivity are expected to operate in accordance with market logic, by which responsible behaviour is defined not just as self-regulation, but also as economically efficient and effective action.…”

Section: Neoliberal Governmentality and The Behaviouralisation Of Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is because economic logic presents the state as the caretaker of its populations. Yet the state plays a political role in using power to regulate and colonise people: processes insulated by the market logic of neoliberalism (Strakosch 2015;McMahon 2015). For example, when income management was introduced as part of the 2007 NTER, the Racial Discrimination Act was suspended to allow for the policies to racially target Indigenous populations of the Northern Territory (Altman 2007).…”

Section: Income Management and The Depoliticisation Of The Socialmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first point to make in regard to VIM is that market logic persists where the choice to go on VIM is what McMahon (2015) calls 'the constrained, power-filled zone of 'rational' participation in the neoliberal finance economy' (154). Similarly, Gershon (2011) refers to this apparent choice under neoliberal governmentality as the 'pre-structured terrain' (520), where 'people's choices are between limited possibilities, with the structural reasons for the limitations systematically over-looked' (Gershon 2011: 540).…”

Section: Voluntary Income Management (Vim)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This article considers the way in which subjectivities and the way people know themselves to be in the world are targeted in the process of constructing economically self-sufficient and responsible citizens within income management (Buckmaster 2012). Income management is a tool of neoliberal governmentality; specifically, it is the way the regime conditions and regulates subjectivities and behaviour through disincentives while reducing social complexity and relational poverty to market logic (McMahon 2015;Madra & Adaman 2013). Indeed, neoliberal logic continues despite a greater push by policy makers for greater choice and autonomy of people subjected to income management through the use of voluntary and Community based programs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neoliberal subjectivities and the behavioural focus on income management

Klein¹

2016

Aust J Social Issues

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This paper specifically addresses the behavioural focus of the income management regime, arguing that through its use of market logic and the reduction of social and political complexity, the regime is a technology of neoliberal governmentality. This paper finds that income management, whether compulsory or voluntary, blanket or Community based, regards the individual as the site of dysfunction, depoliticising and dehumanising broader socio-economic-historical factors in the process. Further, the focus on behavioural change creates the illusion that the market logic of income management will produce responsible citizens, which in turn obscures the possibility of redressing poverty and inequality.

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Section: Neoliberal Governmentality and The Behaviouralisation Of Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Income Management and The Depoliticisation Of The Socialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Voluntary Income Management (Vim)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Neoliberal subjectivities and the behavioural focus on income management

Klein¹

2016

Aust J Social Issues

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“…The generally neoliberal assumption is that people are free to make choices and thus just need a slight push to make the right decision. Behavioral economics draws on some of these principles(McMahon, 2015).Frontiers in Sociology | www.frontiersin.org…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Finding “What's Wrong With Us”: Antibiotic Prescribing Practice Among Physicians in the United States

Rynkiewich

2020

Front. Sociol.

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Antibiotic stewardship-or the responsible use of antibiotics-has been touted as a solution to the problem of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic stewardship in medical institutions attempts to change the antibiotic prescribing "behaviors" and "habits" of physicians. Interventions abound targeting "problem prescribers," or those physicians whose practice is out of line with physician peers. Thus, the locus of decision-making in antibiotic prescribing is thought to be the found with the individual physician. Based on 18 months of participant observation and in-depth interviewing of antibiotic-prescribing physicians at two medical institutions in the United States, this paper will question notions of antibiotic stewardship that center on individual "behaviors" and "habits." Many physicians have taken to heart a reductionist approach in studies of antibiotic prescribing, including several physicians I encountered during research who enthusiastically located the benefit of my research in the ability to identify "what's wrong with us." In this paper, I use two representative ethnographic case studies to argue that antibiotic stewardship interventions aimed at identifying and correcting "bad" physician practice limit the possibilities of understanding the social dynamics of the institution. Through an analysis of everyday encounters in the hospital setting, I show how decision-making in antibiotic prescribing can more productively be located between and among institutions, physicians, patient charts, and other hospital-based staff members (e.g., pharmacists, nurses). By demonstrating that antibiotic prescribing is a collective practice occurring through engagement with social and material surroundings, I argue that we can better account for the weighted ways in which social action and relations unfold over time.

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Climate change and disasters: The ethics of leadership

Crosweller

Tschakert

2019

WIREs Climate Change

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Climate change, extreme events, and related disasters pose significant challenges not only for the poorest and most vulnerable populations, but also for leaders in disaster and emergency management. Effective leadership entails preparing for and responding to increasing intensities and frequencies of extreme natural hazard events while managing and justifying suffering and loss that communities and individuals experience in case of failed protection. Insight is provided into this double challenge and how it is compounded by the concomitant ways modern societies engage with risk and construct vulnerability and resilience. A conceptual framework is used to show how the rise of modernity, today's risk society, neoliberalism, and governmentality as found in many western democracies, converge to constrain disaster leadership and management, illustrating how interpretations of responsibility and potential loss and suffering have shifted from organizations to individual actors, exacerbating the leadership dilemma in managing hazard-driven crises. This includes ways that neoliberal governmentality warp understandings of vulnerability and resilience by understating one and overstating the other. Through a heuristic, we explain mounting leadership challenges with increasing levels of disaster intensity and consequence, drawing upon natural hazard examples from Australia.

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Behavioral economics as neoliberalism: Producing and governing homo economicus

Cited by 60 publications

References 30 publications

Neoliberal subjectivities and the behavioural focus on income management

Neoliberal subjectivities and the behavioural focus on income management

Finding “What's Wrong With Us”: Antibiotic Prescribing Practice Among Physicians in the United States

Climate change and disasters: The ethics of leadership

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