Neoliberal Citizenship: Sacred Markets, Sacrificial Lives

With cosmopolitan illusions put to rest, Europe is now haunted by a pervasive neoliberal transformation of citizenship that subordinates inclusion, protection, and belonging to rationalities of value. Against the backdrop of four major crises—Eurozone, refugee, Brexit, and the COVID-19 pandemic—this book explores how neoliberal citizenship rewrites identities and solidarities in economic terms. The result is a sacralized market order in which those superfluous to economic needs and regarded as unproductive consumers of resources—be they undocumented migrants, debased citizens of austerity, or the elderly in care homes—are excluded and sacrificed for the well-being of the economy. Pushing biopolitical theorizing in novel directions through an investigation of the political economy of scarcity and the theology of the market, Neoliberal Citizenship reveals how a common thread connects the suspension of search-and-rescue missions in the Mediterranean, the punitive bailout of Greece, the widespread adoption of austerity measures, the normalization of racism, the celebration of resilience, and the fact that in Europe and North America, during the first wave of the pandemic, almost half of all COVID-19 deaths were care home residents. This thread is the sacralization of the market that, by making life conditional upon its economic and emotional value, turns ‘less valuable’ individuals into sacrificial subjects. Neoliberal Citizenship challenges established understandings of citizenship, brings to light new regimes of inclusion and exclusion, and advances critical insights on the future of neoliberalism in a post-COVID-19 world.