Neoliberalism in the Information Age, or Vice Versa? Global Citizenship, Technology, and Hegemonic Ideology

Abstract

Contingent as they are upon technological globalization, contemporary notions of global citizenship tend to run parallel to theories of ‘post-industrialism’ and ‘information society’. This paper problematizes this relationship by delineating the connections between ‘informationist’ theory and neoliberal ideology, which together have laid the ideational foundations for a reordering of the global political economy over the past 40 years in favor of global capital. Drawing on the work of Antonio Gramsci, this paper argues that information-age theories have served to facilitate the neoliberal project, obscuring behind a veil of teleological inevitability and technological determinism the political transformations which make global neoliberalism possible, even while prescribing the technological innovations which make such transformations technically feasible. Crucially, in eroding national sovereignty over trade and labour laws, capital flows, and fiscal and monetary policy, the ascent of ‘informational neoliberalism’ has served to undermine traditional citizenship in favor of market discipline and neoliberal hegemony.