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Assembling Neoliberalism pp 283–302Cite as

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Economic, Experiments, Evidence: Poor Behavior and the Development of Market Subjects

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Abstract

The chapter charts the rise of behaviorism and experimentalism in economics, and the specific way in which the behavioral and experimental apparatus is being translated into the marketization of poor smallholders in the rural Global South. We argue that this shift is connected to the reformulated ideal of an “imperfect” economic subject. Speculating tentatively about a corresponding assemblage of a rearticulated “roll-in neoliberalism”, we discuss the contradictions in a policy script that sets out to engineer seemingly “passive” subjects and point to parallels with similar policies that are targeted at “undesired” behavior in the Global North.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Christian Berndt & Marc Boeckler

  2. Department of Human Geography, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany

    Christian Berndt & Marc Boeckler

Authors
  1. Christian Berndt
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  2. Marc Boeckler
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, Australia

    Vaughan Higgins

  2. Office of the Provost, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

    Wendy Larner

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Berndt, C., Boeckler, M. (2017). Economic, Experiments, Evidence: Poor Behavior and the Development of Market Subjects. In: Higgins, V., Larner, W. (eds) Assembling Neoliberalism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58204-1_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58204-1_14

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58203-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58204-1

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