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School of Business and Management

School Research Seminar: Hosted by Dr Liam Campling (CfEP)

11 February 2015

Time: 1:00 - 2:00pm
Venue: FB4.04/4.08, Mile End Campus, E1 4NS

Speaker name & affiliation

Professor Gerry Hanlon - School of Business and Management

Seminar title

Management – the First Neo-liberal Science?

Abstract

There has been an upsurge in studies of neo-liberal thought.  Two recent developments within this have been an unearthing of the deep links between social science and neo-liberalism (Mirowski 2013: Dardot and Laval 2013: Gane, 2013 2014, Davies, 2014).  What follows seeks to further examine these links  through an examination of neo-liberal and management thought at their origins.  The paper explores the early foundations of neo-liberalism and management thought to argue that they share the same fundamental features – namely, a belief in active intervention, the prioritisation of competition, and the necessity of elite leadership.  The purpose of all three features is the reshaping of subjectivity and social relations.  

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