Economic Citizenship Neoliberal Paradoxes of Empowerment [Hardcover]

With the spread of neoliberal projects, responsibility for the welfare of minority and poor citizens has shifted from states to local communities. Businesses, municipalities, grassroots activists, and state functionaries share in projects meant to help vulnerable populations become self-supportive. Ironically, such projects produce odd discursive blends of justice, solidarity, and wellbeing, and place the languages of feminist and minority rights side by side with the language of apolitical consumerism. Using theoretical concepts of economic citizenship and emotional capitalism,Economic Citizenshipexposes the paradoxes that are deep within neoliberal interpretations of citizenship and analyzes the unexpected consequences of applying globally circulating notions to concrete local contexts.

Amalia Saaris a cultural anthropologist at the University of Haifa. She has done research on gender politics among the Palestinian citizens of Israel, on the implications of the gender-contract cultural scheme for womens work strategies and work prospects, on womens perceptions of peace, war, and security, and on generational relations in Israeli feminism.

List of Tables
List of Abbreviations

Introduction

PART I: PARADOXES OF THE PURSUIT OF SOLIDARITY AMID POLARIZING SOCIAL INEQUALITIES

Chapter 1.Social Economy, The Quest for Social Justice under Neoliberalism

PART II: WOMEN MAKING SENSE OF THE DEMAND TO MAKE MONEY

Chapter 2.Vulnerabilities
Chapter 3.Empowerments
Chapter 4.Entitlement

PART III: ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP, BETWEEN THE RIGHT TO WORK TO THE OBLIGATION TO BE PRODUCTIVE

Chapter 5.Discussion, The Emergence of? a Hybrid Local Discourse on Incl3´