The Uses of Neoliberalism

Abstract: The term “neoliberalism” has come to be used in a wide variety of partly overlapping and partly contradictory ways. This essay seeks to clarify some of the analytical and political work that the term does in its different usages. It then goes on to suggest that making an analytical distinction between neoliberal “arts of government” and the class‐based ideological “project” of neoliberalism can allow us to identify some surprising (and perhaps hopeful) new forms of politics that illustrate how fundamentally polyvalent neoliberal mechanisms of government can be. A range of empirical examples are discussed, mostly coming from my recent work on social policy and anti‐poverty politics in southern Africa.     

The Magical and Ceremonial Uses of Fire

G. DRIOUX. Cultes indigènes des Lingons. Essai sur les traditions religieuses d'une cité gallo-romaine avant le triomphe du Christianisme. (Grand in-8 de xxii–227 pages, 6 cartes et 8 planches hors-texte. A. Picard, Paris; Imprimerie Champenoise, Langres. 1934. 60 francs.). Reviewed by A. N. Newell.

THE RAINBOW BRIDGE : A STUDY OF PAGANISM. By JOHN STRONG NEWBERRY. London: Macmillan. 1934. Pp. xv+ 346. 15s. net. Reviewed by H. J. Rose.

THREE ESSAYS ON SEX AND MARRIAGE. By EDWARD WESTERMARCK. Pp. ix.+353. London: Macmillan. 1934. Price 12s. 6d. Reviewed by H. J. Rose.

REVUE INTERNATIONALE DES ÉTUDES BASQUES Vol. xxv, fasc. 2. April–June 1934. Pp. 201–352. Reviewed by P. Barbier.

ROSA SOEDER : DIE APOKRYPHEN APOSTELGESCHICHTEN UND DIE ROMANHAFTE LITERATUR DER ANTIKE. Stuttgart, 1932. W. Kohlhammer. XII. Pp.216. 8⁰. 9″ x 6″. Reviewed by M. Gaster.

LAWRENCE ECKER : ARABISCHER, PROVENZALISCHER UND DEUTSCHER MINNESANG. Bern und Leipzig. Paul Haupt, 1934. 236 pp. 8⁰. 9½″x6½″. Reviewed by M. Gaster.

R. F. FORTUNE. OMAHA SECRET SOCIETIES. Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology, vol. xiv. New York, Columbia University Press, 1932. Reviewed by Barbara Aitken.     

The Narrative Uses of Evidence

When scientific evidence is used in policy controversies, it is always embedded in narrative stories. The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) is an empirical framework used to study the role of narratives in public policy. While the NPF has considered the relationship between evidence and narratives from different angles, it has not used a consistent approach in examining how evidence is embedded in narratives. This article develops a categorization of narrative uses of evidence. A narrative use of evidence is defined by the different roles that evidence plays in the plot of a narrative depending on which narrative element is addressed by a given piece of evidence. To distinguish different narrative uses of evidence, the article examines how competing coalitions use the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study in Swiss direct‐democratic campaigns on school policy. Quantitative and qualitative content analyses of newspaper articles and governmental documents show how evidence may relate to all main narrative elements and may play different roles in the plot of a narrative. The findings demonstrate significant differences in the narrative uses of PISA between coalitions related to the story types and narrative strategies that each coalition uses. Finally, the implications for future NPF research are discussed.     

Disciplining Memory: Heritage Tourism and the Temporalisation of the Built Environment in Rural France

This article presents an ethnographic case study of the relationship between the development of heritage tourism, and the role of material culture in memory practices in rural Southern France. Drawing on anthropological fieldwork in the village of Monadières, it provides an analysis of how artefacts in the locality's built environment have been renovated and revalued in a climate of historical change. This was the consequence of varied acts of commemoration by both independent individuals and the local council in which heritage tourism development was not necessarily the end‐goal. Nevertheless, these acts were implicated in the council's ‘disciplinary programme’ to produce a local infrastructure for heritage tourism. The article therefore explores how this industry co‐habits with and colonises modern memory practices at a micro‐level. To this end it adapts analytical tools from the anthropology of time, which enable an integrative analysis of these differing ‘temporalisations’ of the past.     

The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History

Our respondents, North American and British alike, have provided a series of perceptive comments on our essay “A Peripheral Vision”. They are as wide-ranging as they are well argued and provide ample food for thought on the direction of Communist historiography, not only in Britain but in America and beyond. We want to thank all of them for their informed, often argumentative and sometimes critical collaboration, as well as Dan Leab, the editor of American Communist History, who has made this exchange possible.     

嘉道年間江南的漕弊

嘉道年間的漕務是與積弊聯繫在一起的,作爲一種常態而存在的漕弊,本身即是制度的組成部分。在財政層面,漕弊主要表現爲旗丁幫費問題、大小户問題、漕糧的浮收勒折與虧空問題。嘉道年間的江南,一方面是倉漕衛所規費、旗丁幫費、官紳漕規、州縣浮收逐年遞增,而另一方面,捏災、短漕、虧空也隨之愈演愈烈,這導致了漕糧河運制度在道咸之交的崩潰。本文認爲:從財政結構的角度來看,所謂漕弊是各種浮費代表的額外財政對於額定財政的空前侵蝕。     

Colonial Institutions: Uses,Subversions, and Material Afterlives

Archaeologically based explorations of colonialism or institutions are common case-studies in global historical archaeology, but the “colonial institution”—the role of institutions as operatives of colonialism—has often been neglected. In this thematic edition we argue that in order to fully understand the interconnected, global world one must explicitly dissect the colonial institution as an entwined, dual manifestation that is central to understanding both power and power relations in the modern world. Following Ann Laura Stoler, we have selected case studies from the Australia, Europe, UK and the USA which reveal that the study of colonial institutions should not be limited to the functional life of these institutions—or solely those that take the form of monumental architecture—but should include the long shadow of “imperial debris” (Stoler 2008) and immaterial institutions.     

Rural Failure: The Linkage Between Policy and Lobbies

The failure of a national rural policy is a complex phenomenon. Suffice to say that such policy never emerged, despite frequent appearances on the presidential agenda. This analysis looks beyond institutional inertia and examines the reasons why no sustained rural lobby was ever created independent of farm interests. The circular explanation finds (hat lobbies fail to develop in the absence of a supportive base on which to place their demands for change.