Contesting neoliberalism: Mapping the terrain of social conflict

Abstract

This article explores the terrain of social conflict as it developed across advanced capitalist democracies throughout the ‘age of austerity’ that followed the global economic crisis. It shows how a (broadly defined) working class mobilised in different ways in different capitalist contexts, contesting the institutional forms (and the crises that emerged from them) which constitute each particular model of capitalism. Considered this way, we are able to conceptualise and explain the forms of working-class mobilisation that have emerged in opposition to contemporary neoliberalism. In doing so, we go beyond a narrow focus on workplace-focused or trade-union-led forms of working-class mobilisation, highlighting the continuing contestation of neoliberal capitalism. Drawing on a protest event analysis of 1,167 protest events in five countries (Spain, Germany, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom), and developing a Régulation Theory approach to the study of protest/social movements, we provide an overview of the most visible patterns of social contestation in each national neoliberal capitalist context, tracing links to the institutional configurations that constitute those national models of capitalism. While there exists no direct (linear) process of causality between the model of neoliberal capitalism and the forms of mobilised dissent witnessed, nevertheless we are able to clearly trace the different pressures of capital accumulation that have given rise to the protest/social movements identified in each case, thereby allowing us to gain a better insight into both each particular model of capitalism and the forms of dissent that constitute it.

Authoritarian liquid transgressions: the case of P&O Ferries

“…142 It signalled the ascendancy of neoliberalism and the dominance of the neoliberal imaginary within which collective agency registers as futile and meaningless. In this broader hegemony, what does the P&O saga tell us about patterns of resilience 143 and the contestation of neoliberalism 144 now occurring in a broader and multi-faceted post-2008 crisis?…”

Dissent within the global political economy: four frustrations, and some alternatives

“…While these instances of dissent are not always immediately reactions to the global political economy, nevertheless they are deeply inter-linked with, explicitly articulate grievances about and reflect the subjectivities and potentialities for association that are emergent from, tendencies that are deeply rooted in the global political economy. Neoliberal public policy (and its consequences), austerity, ecological degradation, precarity, the absence of the means of social reproduction, racialised forms of inequality and domination, the rise of authoritarian neoliberalism and the absence of more institutionalised forms of collective association (most obviously, organised labour) across many sectors of the global economy, can all be clearly traced back to processes that are central to recent developments in the global political economy, and at the same time directly feed into the expressions of dissent we witness (Bailey et al, 2021).…”

protesta social en América Latina: los casos de Brasil, Argentina, Colombia y Chile (2018-2021)

“…ACLED registra fundamentalmente acciones en donde el conflicto se exterioriza a través de alguna manifestación material pública, tales como manifestaciones callejeras, actos y concentraciones, tomas de establecimientos, cortes de rutas, etc. Si bien esto supone un límite que presenta esta base de datos, ya que claramente sería un error subestimar la centralidad que todavía detentan las luchas obreras en los lugares de trabajo (Silver, 2021), de todos modos, como sostienen varios autores (Bieler y Nowac, 2021;Bailey et al, 2021), también es necesario ir más allá de los sitios de producción para poder captar los diversos repertorios de acción como indicadores de las tendencias actuales de la conflictividad social y laboral. Por otro lado, la base de ACLED no establece una discriminación de los conflictos por un contenido esencial a priori, de modo que también nos permite dar cuenta de la heterogeneidad de actores que participan de la misma.…”

“…E incluso, la irrupción de la pandemia de Covid-19 ha acentuado el interés de los/as investigadores/as sobre la temática del conflicto social en la región 1 . Sin embargo, a pesar de la diversidad de enfoques, todavía existe cierta reticencia a vincular las características centrales que presentan la conflictividad social y las dinámicas actuales del capitalismo contemporáneo (Bailey et al, 2021).…”

“…Todo lo cual, a priori, implicaría importantes obstáculos para la organización y acción de la clase trabajadora. Sin embargo, la particularidad es que, a la par de estas tendencias, se registra a nivel regional (y también global) un importante incremento de la conflictividad tanto del movimiento obrero como de otros sectores sociales (Silver, 2021;Bailey et al, 2021). En este sentido, el contexto de estancamiento económico y de crisis prolongadas que afectan a varios países de América Latina se combina tanto con la intensificación de luchas clásicas como con el desarrollo de nuevas formas de luchas.…”