Neoliberalism's Latest Incarnation? Libertarian Paternalism, Behavioural Economic, and Surveillance Capitalisms
Seminar Readings:
Task: Please check out the Behavioral Economics Group at Warwick University!
Lemke, Thomas, Bio-Politics: An Advanced Introduction (New York/London 2011), chapter 3: The Government of Living Beings, pp. 33-52.
Heukelom, Floris, Behavioral Economics: A History, Introduction and Chapter I, pp. 1-9, pp. 11-28.
Gane, Niclas, Nudge Economics as Libertarian Paternalism, Theory, Culture, and Society (Special issue post-neoliberalism) (2021), 1-24
McMahon, J. (2015) Behavioral economics as neoliberalism. Contemporary Political Theory 14(2): 137–158.
Further Readings:
Ahmed, Sara. 2010. The Promise of Happiness (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010).
Beck, Ulrich and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, Individualization. Institutionalized Individualism and Its Social and Political Consequences (London: SAGE Publications., 2002)
Colin Crouch, Postdemocracy: Themes of the 21st Century ( -- order online)
Frey, Bruno S. and Alois Stutzer, Happiness and Economics: How the Economy and Institutions Affect Human Well-Being (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006).
Gigerenzer, Gerd, ‘On the supposed Evidence for Liberarian Paternalism’, Review of Philosophy and Psychology 6,3 (2015): 361–383.
Berg N, Gigerenzer Gerd, ‘As-if Behavioural Economics: Neoclassical Economics in Disguise?’ History of Economic Ideas 18 (2010): 133–166.
Burchell G, 1996, “Liberal government and techniques of the self”, in Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neoliberalism and Rationalities of Government Eds Barry A, Osborne T, Rose N (University College London Press, London) pp 19–36.
John P, Smith G, Stoker G, 2009, “Nudge nudge, think think: Two strategies for changing civic behaviour” The Political Quarterly 80 361–370
Osborne, G. and Thaler, R. (2010) 'We can make you behave'. The Guardian, 28 January. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commen
McMahon, J. (2015) 'Behavioral economics as neoliberalism', Contemporary Political Theory 14(2): 137–158.
Kahneman, Daniel and Alan Krueger. 2006. “Developments in the measurement of subjective well-being.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 20(1): 3–24.
Kahnemann, Daniel, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2012 (online)
Streeck, Wolfgang, 'Citizens as Consumers: Considerations on the new Politics of Consumption', in ibid., How will Capitalism End? Essays on a Failing System (London: Verso, 2016), 95-112.
Sunstein, Cass, Why Nudge? (New Haven: Yale University Press., 2014)
Sunstein, Cass, (2019) On Freedom (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019)
Sunstein, Cass (2019) How Change Happens (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2019)
Thaler, R. (2015) Misbehaving (New York: Norton, 2015)