ABOUT THE PROJECT
One of the most memorable readings that I came across in my cultural anthropology class on The Wire was David Harvey’s Brief History of Neoliberalism. What really struck me about the reading was that Harvey addressed some of the most pressing issues of our time, such as the ever-increasing income inequality, through examining the overarching impact of neoliberalism. The remnants and consequences of neoliberal policies are in fact everywhere—it is just that people fail to see the underlying common premise of these practices, which is what David Harvey calls "accumulation by dispossession". Whether it is the 08' financial crisis, or the prison industrial complex, or the narco-capitalism, the engine that propels these structural forces is an expansive set of neoliberal practices that people of this country have agreed to, both knowingly and unknowingly. My key word project, therefore, strives to peel off a layer of complexities surrounding some of our most pressing social problems and shed light on the often forgotten and overlooked connection to neoliberalism. Click the button below to learn about the beginnings of neoliberalism.
about the author
Angela Kim is a senior at Duke University majoring in history and minoring in cultural anthropology. Through re-watching The Wire, this time with supplementary readings that delve into the structural forces causing and perpetuating such social problems, Angela feels that her outlook on political and economic decisions has dramatically changed.