The family and neoliberalism: time to revive a critique

Abstract

I argue that the family remains integral to neoliberal capitalism. First, I identify two tensions in the neoliberals’ advocacy of the traditional family: that the “family values” advocated run directly counter to the homo economicus of the “free market”; and the fact that the increasingly strident rhetoric of the family belies its decreasing popularity. The implications of these tensions for how we might think of the family, I then propose, suggest that earlier critiques are worth revisiting for what they have to say about the family – whether in biological or in social form – as a structure of ownership. Finally, I conclude with some embryonic thoughts about the ideological role of that state of affairs in shaping at once our understanding of ‘politics’ and our politics.