Neoliberalism against society? Spontaneous order and governance of desire in digital societies

Mavelli, L and Cerella, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6417-091X, 2024. Neoliberalism against society? Spontaneous order and governance of desire in digital societies. Critical Sociology. ISSN 0896-9205

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Abstract

Critical scholarship often argues that neoliberalism has caused the ‘crisis’ or ‘destruction’ of society. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of power as ‘productive’ and focusing on digital societies, we argue that neoliberalism seeks not to dismantle society but to create societies that govern desires through market freedom. We explore Friedrich Hayek’s idea that a free society is not based on social well-being or equality, but on spontaneous norms arising from the market order. Digital societies, we contend, are neoliberal but not spontaneous; they emerge from the market order yet are shaped by algorithmic codes that intercept, manipulate, amplify, and promote the voluntary self-exploitation of individual desires. The article combines the latest critical scholarship on neoliberalism with a fresh interpretation of Hayek’s thought and recent work on digital societies and algorithmic governance, highlighting the often-overlooked role of desire in the neoliberal governance of the digital age.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Critical Sociology
Creators:	Mavelli, L. and Cerella, A.
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Date:	7 October 2024
ISSN:	0896-9205
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1177/08969205241287067 DOI 2242504 Other
Rights:	© The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Melissa Cornwell
Date Added:	08 Oct 2024 09:04
Last Modified:	08 Oct 2024 09:04
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52373

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