Neoliberalizing Space

There are, in fact, many parallels between analytical treatments of globalism and those of neoliberalism. Both have been associated with a mode of exogenized thinking in which globalism/neoliberalism is presented as a naturalized, external “force.” Both ascribe quasiclimatic, extraterrestrial qualities to apparently disembodied, “out there” forces,which are themselves typically linked to alleged tendencies towards homogenization, leveling out, and convergence. And both have attributed to them immense and unambiguous causal efficacy: while conservative commentators emphasize the (ostensibly ubiquitous)benign effects of globalization, critics focus instead on the (just as pervasive)malign effects of neoliberalism. Yet their common flaw is that they have tended to naturalize and exogenize their object of study be this in the form of an all-powerful globalization process or the allencompassing politics of neoliberalism. Certainly, critical analyses do have the virtue of underscoring the inescapably political character of the globalization project and the hegemonic position of neoliberalism in global agencies and discourses. However, there is more to be done, both theoretically and empirically, on the specification and exploration of different processes of neoliberalization.

Tickell, A. and Peck, J. Antipode 34(3)382-383