On the Function of “Neo-liberalism”: How to Do Things with the Concept

Abstract

The term/concept of neoliberalism has perhaps been one of the most popular and continuously used terms/concepts in critical sociology, economics, politics, geography, gender theory, etc. over the past few decades. While examining the ambiguity and inflexibility of this concept in the history of economics and sociology with Marxism at its core, Shinichiro Inaba has extolled the concept of neoliberalism as a “Brocken spectre.” In this paper, while continuing Inaba’s problem-setting, we will address the question of how the use of the concept of “neoliberalism” is justified, and what people are doing by using the concept. One task will be to detect its social and sociological functions rather than to show the expiration of neoliberalism as an explanatory concept.