Cirrus@Austlit

'What are students of popular culture to do with the term “neoliberalism?” From one perspective, the term is already exhausted. Critics attack writing about neoliberalism for being reductive, for pursuing a critical “buzz‐word” that tends to oversimplify a complex set of economic and political processes. Fashionable terminology circulates with ever greater speed and intensity in academic discourse. Why cling to the outmoded? But, before shelving the topic, we must recognize that the tendency to seek new critical terms rapidly is itself informed by the dynamics of the neoliberal era. We should be wary of moving on a bit too quickly in pursuit of greener pastures. Even cultural theorist Stuart Hall, who admits the limitations of the catch‐all term, insists that the frame of neoliberalism serves a vital purpose by making visible a dense network of interrelated cultural changes over the past fifty years. For Hall, the term does not put a period at the end of the sentence. Instead, it offers common ground from which to begin further exploration. This special issue on neoliberalism in popular culture continues that exploration, showing how the concept still offers numerous avenues for productive inquiry.' (Introduction)