Possibilities beyond crisis: Neoliberal globalization and the reconstruction of morality

Abstract

This essay discusses two books on the continuing global economic crisis that occupy the highly contested intersection between economics and sociology. In exploring the possibilities for progressive alternatives to neoliberal globalization, two leading French theorists, Daniel Cohen and Alain Touraine, both integrate social, political, and cultural factors with economic analysis. Each illustrates how the dominance of financial imperatives has steadily displaced moral considerations, leading to socioeconomic polarization and fragmentation. For Cohen, in his critique of the key neoliberal concept of ‘homo economicus,’ a reassertion of human values of reciprocity and cooperation is required in order to construct a viable postmaterialist project. Touraine proposes a political future based on the enduring principles of human rights, through which a radically progressive individual and global subjectivity can be realized. The essay evaluates the arguments of each theorist, while examining the possibilities for morally informed alternatives to neoliberal globalization.