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Climbing the Oak of Freedom: An analysis of Wendy Brown’s understanding of freedom

Hjälmhammar, Alfred LU (2024) STVK05 20241
Department of Political Science
Abstract
Furthered as one of the core values behind neoliberal ideas, freedom becomes a contested site in contemporary critiques of neoliberalism. As one of the leading scholars on–and critics of–neoliberalism, Wendy Brown argues that neoliberal rationality undermines the prospect of democracy, as well as freedom. By using a contextualizing and reconstructive method, this study analyzes multiple works of Brown to gain a granular understanding of her notion of freedom and evaluate its consistency and coherence. The essay also situates Brown’s understanding of freedom in regards to well-known academic concepts of freedom by introducing the theoretical framework of the Oak of Freedom, which allows concepts to build on each other. The study concludes... (More)
Furthered as one of the core values behind neoliberal ideas, freedom becomes a contested site in contemporary critiques of neoliberalism. As one of the leading scholars on–and critics of–neoliberalism, Wendy Brown argues that neoliberal rationality undermines the prospect of democracy, as well as freedom. By using a contextualizing and reconstructive method, this study analyzes multiple works of Brown to gain a granular understanding of her notion of freedom and evaluate its consistency and coherence. The essay also situates Brown’s understanding of freedom in regards to well-known academic concepts of freedom by introducing the theoretical framework of the Oak of Freedom, which allows concepts to build on each other. The study concludes that Brown’s understanding of freedom consists of a mutually reinforcing relationship between ruling oneself and participating in ruling together with others. This freedom requires political equality and is guided by moral deliberation and contemplation. Furthermore, the study illuminates the paradoxical nature of Brown's freedom that follows from its democratic foundation. Brown is also found to be inconsistent in connecting freedom to autocracies and incoherent when relating freedom to equality. Comparing Brown’s freedom to other concepts, her notion is placed as a positive concept in the Oak. (Less)
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author
Hjälmhammar, Alfred LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK05 20241
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Freedom, Wendy Brown, Neoliberalism, Democracy, Homo politicus
language
English
id
9152892
date added to LUP
2024-07-18 13:47:13
date last changed
2024-07-18 13:47:13
@misc{9152892,
  abstract     = {{Furthered as one of the core values behind neoliberal ideas, freedom becomes a contested site in contemporary critiques of neoliberalism. As one of the leading scholars on–and critics of–neoliberalism, Wendy Brown argues that neoliberal rationality undermines the prospect of democracy, as well as freedom. By using a contextualizing and reconstructive method, this study analyzes multiple works of Brown to gain a granular understanding of her notion of freedom and evaluate its consistency and coherence. The essay also situates Brown’s understanding of freedom in regards to well-known academic concepts of freedom by introducing the theoretical framework of the Oak of Freedom, which allows concepts to build on each other. The study concludes that Brown’s understanding of freedom consists of a mutually reinforcing relationship between ruling oneself and participating in ruling together with others. This freedom requires political equality and is guided by moral deliberation and contemplation. Furthermore, the study illuminates the paradoxical nature of Brown's freedom that follows from its democratic foundation. Brown is also found to be inconsistent in connecting freedom to autocracies and incoherent when relating freedom to equality. Comparing Brown’s freedom to other concepts, her notion is placed as a positive concept in the Oak.}},
  author       = {{Hjälmhammar, Alfred}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Climbing the Oak of Freedom: An analysis of Wendy Brown’s understanding of freedom}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}