UW-Madison neoliberalism expert awarded 2006 Guggenheim

A University of Wisconsin–Madison professor of geography and sociology will use his award from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to develop a critical analysis of “neoliberalism.”

Jamie Peck says that neoliberalism is most closely associated with privatization and deregulation, reductions in social welfare programs, free trade, tax reform and liberalization of financial and labor markets, among other strategies. With Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher as neoliberalism’s talismanic figures, the developing world sometimes refers to neoliberalism the “Washington Consensus.”

“However, the form, meaning and consequences of neoliberalism vary widely across geographical contexts,” he says.

His work will track the role of free-market think tanks in devising and disseminating neoliberal policies. Peck will use the research, to be conducted in London and Washington, D.C., for a book. His award was one of 187 the foundation gave this year.