Introduction

Abstract

4 May 2019 marked the fortieth anniversary of Thatcher’s first coming to power and the beginning of what is still presented as the Anglo-American neoliberal turning point. Neoliberalism has developed in several waves since then. It has survived the crises of the last thirty years leading some to evoke “the strange non-death of Neoliberalism.” Neoliberalism has enjoyed longevity thanks to its institutional embeddedness and capacity for readjustments. Today, the successive financial and COVID-19 pandemic crises have caused world leaders to consider and implement policies very recently deemed unorthodox and have led some to call into question the cogency of what had established itself as a “neoliberal model.” Researchers are still divided regarding the usefulness of this slippery and ill-defined term of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism should thus be approached as a multifaceted phenomenon (an intellectual movement, an intellectual network, a political project, and a useful descriptor of real-world phenomena) which has resulted in a radical restructuring and reorganisation of the economy, politics, society, culture, and the environment. Our analysis of neoliberalism is thus based on a multidisciplinary approach. The present book precisely aims to analyse the spreading of neoliberalism and governance practices, and the vehicles of their dissemination.