An expedition through the REF and other ‘neoliberal’ times

Inaugural lecture by Daniel Neyland

In collaboration with Vera Ehrenstein and Sveta Milyaeva

What times do we live in and how should we get through them? To address this question I suggest using Latour’s notion of The Modern as a departure point for an expedition through the devices of ‘neoliberalism’ (a term that loses as much as it gains through usage). From emissions trading, advance market commitments, to social impact bonds, we will explore how these devices anticipate a pure and linear time of progress, only to be overwhelmed by hybridity and plurality. Our final destination on the expedition will be a device in which we are reflexively complicit: the REF. I will suggest that here a time of progress is sustained, but only through a curious form of relativism.

Tuesday, 21st February, 2017 17.30 – 19.30

Ian Gulland Lecture Theatre, Goldsmiths.