Pamela Brown
Pamela Brown is a second year student in the New School Media Studies MA Program. Her interests include: the impact of technology on human behavior and social organization, ideology, labor, political economy of media and public policy. Pam previously worked in feature film development and as a literary manager. Pam holds her undergraduate degree in Philosophy from Dartmouth College and attended Columbia University’s Film School.
The Neoliberal Vision: a Post-social World
Over recent years, the American conversation has shifted from concern over equality to concern over freedom. The turn toward ideals of freedom and individualism has been termed “neoliberalism.” Most research on this transition focuses on the political and economic conditions associated with neoliberalism, and not on the relationship between this transition and the revolutionary change our media environment has undergone simultaneously. The paper argues that although accounts that seek to understand neoliberalism as a part of an ongoing ideological debate between conservatives and liberals are partially true, these accounts fail to provide a satisfying explanation of why these ideas have resonated so strongly at this time. By perceiving the moving image as the foundation of a fundamentally different mode of production, and by perceiving neoliberalism as an outgrowth of the breakdown of the historic relationship between labor and capital, we can understand neoliberalism as a change to social ethic associated with new technology.