How Neoliberalism and Management Redefined Social Class Conflicts
Professor Emmanuelle de Verlaine
Abstract
Social class inequalities between workers and wealthiest capitalists have grown while neoliberalism expends globally. Yet, there is no apparent emerging social class conflict. The question we address is: How Neoliberalism bypasses social class conflict? Through a theoretical analysis and an empirical research, we discover that social class conflicts have been redefined with neoliberalist global expansion and ongoing management innovations. Our paper addresses this question in two streams. First, we present a critical literature analysis of the Social Class Theory and its evolution. Second, we present the empirical methodology with the conceptual and operational framework analysing 30 sets of meta-data case studies of social conflicts. The research results reveal the elite’s regime and its increased capabilities with neoliberalism and management to bypass social conflicts by complexifying the system and reframing representations on conflicts. We discuss what the capitalist regime means for the future of humanity and future major conflicts.
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