Surviving neo-liberalism and the liberal backlash

Personal experiences gained while working as a human geographer in three countries form the basis for reflections on two key areas: recent developments in the ongoing neoliberalization of higher education, and the place of critical cultural and social theory, especially as connected with newly controversial ‘diversity politics’, both inside and outside the academy. In the first case, a differentiated view of the various forms taken by educational neoliberalization is recommended, both for understanding what has happened and for discerning possibilities for an exit from further neoliberal “flailing and failing forward” (Peck, Theodore and Brenner 2012, 274). Secondly, the ‘liberal backlash’, promoted in part by academics, that blames such upheavals as Brexit and the election of Trump in part upon diversity politics and the academic cultural theory with which it is often associated, is identified as a major challenge. Academics must be active in confronting the distorted representations and harmful intellectual politics emanating from this backlash. Across both areas discussed, a vigorous defense of the value and legitimacy of critical social and cultural theory is needed.