Episode 32 of the Saving the World webinar series features Dr Hridesh Gajurel sharing insights from his research on neoliberalism - both its resilience and its decline.
Many observers have been struck by the apparent resilience of neoliberalism through the Global Financial Crisis, the climate emergency, and the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the state reasserted its central role in economic and social life to address these crises. Others, however, point to signs of neoliberalism’s decline, including the rise of populism, protectionism, and industrial policy, especially since Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. Could neoliberalism be both resilient and declining at the same time?
This presentation argues that it can. By breaking neoliberalism down into its core tenets and tracing their influence on public policy over time, we can see that some tenets remain resilient while others have faded, though unevenly. This more granular view offers a more nuanced account of neoliberalism as a governing paradigm and of its changing fate since its rise to dominance in the 1980s and 1990s.
The ‘Saving the World’ webinar series, presented by the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, releases a new episode each month, discussing the intersections between climate change, inequity and human health. The webinars focus on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.
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Event Speakers
Dr Hridesh Gajurel
Dr Hridesh Gajurel is a Laureate Research Fellow with the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, School of Regulation and Global Governance. He is a political economist who specialises in varieties of capitalism, corporate short-termism, financialisation, neoliberalism, policy paradigm shifts, institutional memory, and historical institutionalism.
Professor Sharon Friel
Professor Sharon Friel is an ARC Laureate Fellow and Professor of Health Equity in the School of Regulation and Global Governance. She is Director of the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse and Australian Research Centre for Health Equity (ARCHE) at the Australian National University.