Moral panic and the new neoliberal compromise

• Published in: Current sociology 2019-10, Vol.67 (6), p.879-897
• Main Author: Hier, Sean P
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Complaints; Compromises; Everyday life; Fear & phobias; Hegemony; Moral panic; Morality; Neoliberalism; Regulation; Responsibility; Risk management
• ISSN: 0011-3921; 1461-7064
• DOI: 10.1177/0011392119829511

Moral panics are conventionally explained as socially regressive overreactions to objectively minor problems. In the early 2000s, moral panics were recast as collective grievances that arise from perceived crises in the moral regulation of everyday life. Emphasizing neoliberal forms of entrepreneurial risk management, the panic-as-regulation perspective provides ways of thinking beyond some of the limitations associated with conventional perspectives. This article shows how the new neoliberal compromise, characterized by ongoing submission to the rule of capital in the absence of familiar ways of securing hegemonic consensus, is calling attention to the importance of theorizing the conjunctural norms of personal responsibility that underscore the panic-as-regulation perspective. By locating market-oriented subjectivities in the wider trajectory of neoliberalism, we achieve two things: first, a clearer understanding of the normative phase of neoliberal rule in whose image the panic-as-regulation perspective is crafted; second, a stronger position to develop insights into post-hegemonic claims-making activities that are appearing across the political and cultural spectrums.