Neoliberalism and the Opportunodemic

Covid-19, Furlough and Why We Missed the Boat (Again)

Authors

  • Steve Hall Teesside University, UK

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.9940

Keywords:

Covid, neoliberalism, ideology, myths, fear, opportunities

Abstract

It would be far too unkind to suggest that academics and journalists have presented the COVID-19 pandemic in isolation from its broader economic context. However, it would be less unkind to suggest that its location in a triptych of major crises – the Great Financial Crash and its subsequent neoliberal austerity programmes, climate change, and the imminent deglobalisation signaled by the Ukraine-Russia conflict –could do with a little more clarity and accuracy. I want to make a small contribution to that emerging clarity by focusing on a specific interface between the pandemic, economic thinking and the role of the nation-state.

Author Biography

Steve Hall, Teesside University, UK

Steve Hall is Professor of Criminology in the Social Futures Institute and co-founder of the Teesside Centre for Realist Criminology. Steve and his long-term writing partner Simon Winlow have been described as the 'most important criminologists working in Britain today'. His book Criminal Identities and Consumer Culture (Willan 2008, with Simon Winlow and Craig Ancrum) has been described as ‘an important landmark in criminology’ and his book Theorizing Crime and Deviance (Sage 2012) has been lauded as ‘a remarkable intellectual achievement’ that ‘rocks the foundations of the discipline’. 

In the 1970s Steve worked as a professional musician and general labourer, and in the 1980s he worked in the field of rehabilitation and youth offending. 

After graduating in 1991 with first class honours in sociology, he worked as a lecturer at Teesside from 1993, a member of the team that established the country’s first single-honours criminology degree. After spells as a senior research fellow at the University of Durham and a researcher and teacher at Northumbria University, he rejoined Teesside in 2010. 

Steve's recent books are Rethinking Social Exclusion(2013, with Simon Winlow) Riots and Political Protest (Routledge, 2015, with Simon Winlow, James Treadwell and Daniel Briggs) and Revitalizing Criminological Theory (Routledge, 2015, with Simon Winlow). New book: The Rise of the Right (Policy Press, 2016)
Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@introspectivedsgn?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Erik Mclean</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/BDBn8i-HxDQ?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>

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Published

2023-01-09

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2022): Open Issue (2022-2023)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Steve Hall

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