Friendship in an Age of Economics

Resisting the Forces of Neoliberalism

By (author) Todd May

Hardback - £88.00

Publication date:

21 June 2012

Length of book:

164 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739175811

We live in an age of economics. We are encouraged not only to think of our work but also of our lives in economic terms. In many of our practices, we are told that we are consumers and entrepreneurs. What has come to be called neoliberalism is not only a theory of market relations; it is a theory of human relations. Friendship in an Age of Economics both describes and confronts this new reality. It confronts it on some familiar terrain: that of friendship. Friendship, particularly close or deep friendship, resists categorization into economic terms. In a sustained investigation of friendship, this book shows how friendship offers an alternative to neoliberal relationships and can help lay the groundwork for resistance to it.
Friendship in an Age of Economics is itself an important intervention concerning 'how we might live in the contemporary world with its particular power arrangements' (103)—and how we might change it.