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Letting Go of Neoliberal Constraints: Learning from the Regulatory Process

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Regulating US Private Security Contractors

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Abstract

This chapter demonstrates how the neoliberal approach inhibited study of the regulatory process by its assumptions of formed identities, existing structures, and public–private divisions. In continuation of the chapter, it is constructed as a conceptual framework rooted in Bourdieu’s theory of social practices, which is adjusted to allow observation of the regulatory process of private security contractors. Applying concepts of habitus, doxa, capital, and field to stakeholders involved and venues where the regulatory process occurs, it demonstrates there are numerous dynamics that have not been previously addressed. It points up to where the motivations for behavior should be sought and allows us to look beyond socially constructed identities. Such a framework opens up space for the deconstruction of conventional wisdom.

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  1. Department of History and International Relations, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Jovana Jezdimirovic Ranito

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Jezdimirovic Ranito, J. (2019). Letting Go of Neoliberal Constraints: Learning from the Regulatory Process. In: Regulating US Private Security Contractors. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11241-7_3

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