Full Description
Longstanding debates about neoliberalism in the United States center around whether it has created a culture of entrepreneurial selfhood or a carceral state. Credit, Cops, and Cages presents a novel theory and relevant empirical evidence arguing that capitalist individualism combines both of these tendencies.
The book's interdisciplinary authors first derive a critical framework and set of social-psychological hypotheses from the long-neglected criminological writings of the early Frankfurt School. They then test and explore these hypotheses with new data and analyses in a series of chapters that guide the reader down the ladder of capitalist individualism. In the process, the authors synthesize and critically examine scholarship of Constitutional law; big data on indebtedness, segregation, and police militarization; psychological surveys capturing and comparing attitudes and emotions around debt and policing; and the intimate testimony of those who are deeply in debt or are currently incarcerated. Unique in its combination of philosophy and social scientific research, this book restores the relevance of the Frankfurt School's ideas and methods to a comprehensive understanding of contemporary U.S. society.
Contents
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: A Theory of Capitalist Individualism
Chapter 2: The Legal Scaffold of Self-Positions
Chapter 3: Studies on the Psychology of Debt
Chapter 4: The Ambiguous Case of Student Debt
Chapter 5: Studies on Public Attitudes towards Policing and Incarceration
Chapter 6: Bars and Becoming: The Transformation of Identity in Incarcerated Women
Chapter 7: Conclusion: Theoretical Reflections
Appendix: Methodological Supplement to Chapter 3
References
Index
About the Authors
