Introduction: Contesting Neoliberalism and Search for Alternatives—An Overview of Conversations

Abstract

Globalization is not new, and the current phase of globalization is largely driven by neoliberal perspective which gives primacy to the market processes and calls for state retrenchment and advocates reforms accordingly to institutions, processes and governance in the economy in general and the labour market and the industrial relations system (IRS) in particular. However, in the light of adverse experiences and crises, the dominant neoliberal perspective has undergone some change though the fundamentals of it have not changed. Neoliberalism and the neoliberal globalization have been contested in this book. The critics use a variety of perspectives like Marxist, institutional, gender, caste and even religious, and some of the contributions even provide alternatives to neoliberalism. On the other hand, institutional responses in the IRS to neoliberal globalization have also been studied using comparative industrial relations framework. This chapter provides both introduction to neoliberalism and summary of the aforementioned exercises.