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Social Resilience in the Face of Neo-Liberal Globalization
Irrespective of the economic predicament that affected the United States as well as other continents such as Europe in late 2008, leaders within the political domain exercise insignificant attempts based on revising neo-liberal ideologies. Indeed, the neo-liberal era is considerably liable for the movements of the boom and bust. In addition, neo-liberal concepts continue being the primary ideas accessible. Within the financial markets, in which the predicament occurred, re-regulation continues to be dolefully inadequate since the ideas pushed for within the respective era call for either larger laissez-faire or enhanced market regulation. Nonetheless, in light of these statements, it is impossible to ignore the adverse effects that these neo-liberal policies impose on the social order. With the onset of contemporary protest movements such as Occupy Wall Street, it is apparent that there is evidence of significant social resilience in response to the disruptive problems arising from the neo-liberal era.
Examples of Social Resilience
Economic crises which involve the prevalence of debt among global nation-states and its resulting deficit within the 1970s, income-inequalities, the reduction of social democracy and increasing religious fundamentalism due to de-industrialization and privatization schemes have elicited social resilience which illustrate the innovative responses towards the disruption arising from neo-liberal globalization. One example of social resilience involves the rise of social movements. Protest movements are an illustration of the response exuded against the crisis of the neo-liberalist era. For instance, Occupy Wall-Street is a formidable example of a response within the contemporary epoch. Accordingly, the respective movement is a retort to the financial predicament of 2008 as well as the established quandary of neo-liberal authority. Occupy Wall-Street represents the vanished class-consciousness of majority of the low and middle-income people who constitute 99 percent of the society.
Another example of social resilience in the era of neo-liberal globalization comprises the increasing incidence of blended families. Blended families constitute families that possess different inter-racial members. A reason for the significant occurrence of blended families is due to the financial predicament arising from the effects of neo-liberal globalization. Due to the proliferation of the American working class and increasing rates of divorce, adults in America have become integrative with other adults via remarriage in order to adapt to the financial predicaments arising from neo-liberalism. In addition to this, the occurrence of blended families is also a response to adverse social effects, which involve family breakdowns and failing marital relations due to the increasing number of hours that people work in order to gain financial stability. The last illustration of social resilience comprises increased labor militancy in the United States and Europe.
Understanding Social Resilience with Polanyi’s Double Movement
The illustration of the social resilience examples can undergo explication via the use of Polanyi’s double movement. Accordingly, the double movement, as described by Polanyi, argues in two aspects. The first facet involves supporting free market amendments by a range of social groups. The second aspect involves the counter movements mobilized against the push for these respective reforms. In this respect, the examples of social resilience refer significantly to the second aspect of Polanyi’s double movement. Accordingly, an illustration such as the Occupy Movement is a counterattack against the increasing mobility of capital and deregulation mechanisms constructed by the United States. Indeed, the social movement unites all classes under a single social group in order to retaliate against crises such as income inequality and improper wealth distribution.
Increasing labor militancy in the U.S. and Europe also explicates the second aspect. This is because labor militancy examples such as trade unions are an outcome of emergent capital emigration evident in the States and overseas. In addition to this, increasing labor militancy also refers to the double movement’s second aspect due to the manner it refers to adoption of the challenges arising from neo-liberalist policies. Accordingly, laborers have experienced an upsurge in the number of hours they are required to work. This occurrence represents an example of the challenges to freedom that arises from neo-liberalist ideologies. Moreover, blended families are also a response of the effects generated by the free market and market deregulation approaches of the neo-liberalist era and therefore, denote the second aspect of the double movement.
Conclusion
Concluding, neo-liberalism asserts the state as a perpetual quandary and the market as a viable solution. Indeed, due to the emphasis on neo-liberalist policies, the growing society has elicited considerable responses with respect to social resilience, which is evident based on the increasing influence of neo-liberalism in relation to deregulation mechanisms such as securitization of sovereign debt. By attempting to adapt to the disruptions evoked by the effects of the neo-liberalist policies, people have elicited different responses that unite them as a common social group based on the economic predicaments they face as an outcome of capital mobility. Such responses constitute the Occupy Movements, increased labor militancy and the incidence of blended families in the United States. The occurrence of these incidences implies a much condensed and mutual rejoinder towards the economic predicaments arising from the application of resilient neo-liberal policies.