Neoliberal Citizenship

With cosmopolitan illusions put to rest, Europe is now haunted by a pervasive neoliberal transformation of citizenship that subordinates inclusion, protection, and belonging to rationalities of value. Against the backdrop of four major crises - Eurozone, refugee, Brexit, and the COVID-19 pandemic - this book explores how neoliberal citizenship rewrites identities and solidarities in economic terms. The result is a sacralized market order in which those superfluous toeconomic needs and regarded as unproductive consumers of resources - be they undocumented migrants, debased citizens of austerity, or the elderly in care homes - are excluded and sacrificed for the well-being of the economy. Pushing biopolitical theorizing in novel directions through aninvestigation of the political economy of scarcity and the theology of the market, Neoliberal Citizenship reveals how a common thread connects the suspension of search-and-rescue missions in the Mediterranean, the punitive bailout of Greece, the widespread adoption of austerity measures, the normalization of racism, the celebration of resilience, and the fact that in Europe and North America, during the first wave of the pandemic, almost half of all COVID-19 deaths were care homeresidents. This thread is the sacralization of the market that, by making life conditional upon its economic and emotional value, turns 'less valuable' individuals into sacrificial subjects. Neoliberal Citizenship challenges established understandings of citizenship, brings to light new regimes of inclusion andexclusion, and advances critical insights on the future of neoliberalism in a post-COVID-19 world.

In this big, bold, and brash book, Luca Mavelli explores what happens when liberal citizenship transforms into neoliberal citizenship. What happens when the market determines: who can and cannot be a member? how outsiders can be treated? who can and cannot call on the state for protection - and what kind? who lives and who dies? This is a book that transcends national, comparative, and global politics - just as neoliberalism does. Highly recommended., A rich contribution to the scholarship on neoliberalism, one that develops a powerful account of the neoliberalization of quotidian citizenship to illuminate Europe's management of migration and COVID. Mavelli's thesis on sacrificial citizenship is especially provocative., Erudite and passionate, Mavelli brings to urgent attention the perverse and destructive contemporary forms of neoliberal rule. Charting the lives of those considered to be 'expendable', Mavelli highlights how large sections of populations are turned into sacrificial citizens irrespective of their formal citizenship status. He provides an authoritative exposition of the neoliberal 'creative destruction' of meaning, which reverses the grammar of solidarity to the effect that: 'helping the poor' becomes a way of perpetuating their debasement; rescuing migrants becomes a 'pull factor' that will cause more deaths; and prioritising the elderly risks the destruction of the economy and society. New forms of humanitarianism and solidarity are very much needed and this book will be a major contribution to this conversation., Europe is no longer the religiously and culturally homogenised territory that it once believed it was. Impacted by the end of the Cold War, globalisation, increasing immigration, and the regional rise of right-wing populism, today's Europe faces the future with fear and trepidation. Luca Mavelli has written a remarkable book which, stimulated by the 2015 'refugee crisis', took shape following the UK's 2016 Brexit vote. Mavelli explores the 'sacred' foundations of Europe's neoliberal citizenship. Also influenced by the Global Financial, Eurozone, and Covid-19 pandemic crises, Mavelli's book is an authoritative assessment of why, three decades after the Cold War, Europe is moulded by 'post-secularity', This is an absolutely essential read for making sense of pandemics and other recent challenges such as Europe's 'refugee crisis'. It presents an original thesis about the development of neoliberal citizenship through various practices of governance which demonstrates how the EU and other states and organisations combine a neoliberal belief in the sacredness of the market with biopolitical practices determining the sacrificial disposability of populations. This is a most compelling account of the construction of citizenship that will make a significant contribution to the field of politics and international relations.

Luca Mavelli is a Reader in Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent. He is the author of Europe's Encounter with Islam: The Secular and the Postsecular, and the co-editor of Towards a Postsecular International Politics and The Refugee Crisis and Religion. His articles have appeared in some of the leading journals of politics and international relations. His work has been funded by the UK Economic and Social ResearchCouncil and the British Council.