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.     

A first fossil record for Scolytus scolytus (F.) (elm bark beetle): its occurrence in elm decline deposits from London and the implications for neolithic elm disease

A problem which has arisen in discussions of an elm-disease explanation for the Neolithic elm decline has been the lack of fossil records of Scolytus scolytus (F.) (elm bark beetle), which is the main carrier of the fungus which causes the present epidemic of Dutch Elm Disease. Now, the discovery of wing cases of two individuals from elm decline deposits at Hampstead Heath, London, proves that the beetle was present in Britain during this episode. The deposits in which it occurs are described, and the various implications for elm disease causing, aiding or at least occurring during this stage of the early Neolithic are discussed.     

Interpolating geochemical patterning of activity zones at Late Neolithic and Early Copper Age settlements in eastern Hungary

The Late Neolithic of southeast Hungary is known almost exclusively from excavations of large settlement mounds, or tells. Geochemical analyses of sediments collected from boreholes at small, flat Late Neolithic and Early Copper Age settlements in Hungary's Körös River basin provide data necessary to interpret the spatial organization of small settlements for the first time in this region. Principal Components Analysis of multi-element data produced a workable number of variables. Spatial analyses of these components via interpolation in ArcGIS 9 identified specific task areas, and when combined with sediment characterizations, phosphate ‘spot-tests’ and pH, suggest long-term cultural traditions in the location of activity zones within small farmsteads. The results demonstrate the usefulness of multi-element geochemistry as an intra-site prospection method.     

A STRUCTURAL EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF METROPOLITAN LABOR DEMAND*

ABSTRACT. This paper uses a large data base to study metropolitan labor demand functions. The data are disaggregated by two-digit SICs in manufacturing for SMS As, and are corrected for changing SMSA boundaries. Labor demand elasticities are estimated for factor and commodity prices, transportation costs, state and local taxes and expenditures, and production-function shifters. Estimates from different years allow one to test Le Chatelier's principle in the context of interregional change.