Invocations of neoliberalism – theories and locations

What is “neoliberalism” and what is its current status? What role does the term play today in politics and the social sciences after all the swansongs and revivals? The aim of this article is to take a closer look at the confusing field of research directions that deal with neoliberalism and to present the most important debates and their further developments in order to facilitate orientation. Starting with a brief overview of current positions on neoliberalism in political discourse, the two most important theoretical perspectives – hegemony theory and governmentality studies – from which neoliberalism is examined will be presented, before moving on to examine various of the most important arenas of neoliberalism. The critical interest of the researchers, most of whom work from one of the two perspectives, is directed, among other things, at the role of the nation state, the restructuring of urban spaces, its effects on gender relations and the way in which life under neoliberalism transforms the self-relations of the subjects. The article concludes with reflections on the theoretical price to be paid for the enormously broad concept of neoliberalism, which consists not least in a supposed lack of alternatives that ironically emerges from the countless critically intended invocations of neoliberalism.