Introduction: Neoliberalism in the Americas. Brutal experiments, distressful realities, and conspicuous contestations

Abstract

This special issue was originally conceived as a conference organized at Duke University in January 2019, entitled “Neoliberalism in the Americas: Brutal Experiments, Distressful Realities, and Conspicuous Contestations. Re-thinking the South in the North and the North in the South.” The premise that inspired this reunion was, since Milton Friedman used dictatorial Chile as a laboratory for his monetary theories, neoliberalism has always been a matter that concerned the Americas as a continent. It has bound together Chicago and Santiago in one single package of authoritarian rule and unfettered capitalism, blemished with Nobel prizes, wealth concentration, and always-renewed, never-fulfilled promises of freedom and economic growth. Most of the articles were originally presented at the aforementioned conference, including a piece shared by one of the keynote speakers, Brazilian philosopher Vladimir Safatle. Nonetheless, we have also incorporated other contributions, such as an interview with Australian scholar Melinda Cooper. These works address neoliberalism from literature to psychoanalysis, from politics to gender and sexual identities, from historical and present-day investigations. The result is a multinational, transdisciplinary volume centered on the experiments of neoliberalization which, since the 1970s, connect the entire continent—ultimately reaching the extent of a truly global experience.