The Return of Ordinary Capitalism examines neoliberalism as the prevailing political-economic logic of our time. How we got to this point, what are the effects on the economy, politics and public policymaking, and what can and should be done about it are the key questions addressed.

Preface ; Chapter 1 The Return of Ordinary Capitalism: Neoliberalism as the New Normal ; Chapter 2 Middle-Class Melancholia: Self-Sufficiency after the Demise of Christianized Capitalism (U.S. Style) ; Chapter 3 Occupy Precarity: Resisting the Limits of Collective Agency under Neoliberalism ; Chapter 4 The Deep Semiotic Structure of Deservingness: Discourse and Identity in Neoliberal Welfare Policy ; Chapter 5 The End of Social Work: Implementing a Neoliberal Paternalism (with Basha Silverman) ; Chapter 6 Schooling the Corporatized Citizen/Corporatizing the School: From Grade School through College ; Chapter 7 The Next Neoliberal Thing: Social Impact Bonds ; Chapter 8 Getting Beyond Neoliberalism: The Road to Radical Incrementalism ; Notes ; Index

The Return of Ordinary Capitalism is remarkable in what it holds together to illuminate our time: critical theory, empirical accounting of contemporary inequality and precarity, case studies on social welfare and education, and attunement to the neoliberalization of everyday life. One need not agree with Schram's arguments to be profoundly instructed and moved by them. Clear, unpretentious and unafraid, this is a work for Occupy's next round.

"The Return of Ordinary Capitalism is an admirably extensive inquiry into the subject of neoliberalism and even proposes some ways out of our current predicament." -- Political Studies Review "Ihe Return of Ordinary Capitalism is remarkable in what it holds together to illuminate our time: critical theory, empirical accounting of contemporary inequality and precarity, case studies on social welfare and education, and attunement to the neoliberalization of everyday life. One need not agree with Schram's arguments to be profoundly instructed and moved by them. Clear, unpretentious and unafraid, this is a work for Occupy's next round." -- Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley "Sanford Schram focuses especially on recent turns in American social policy but in the process he has written an excellent synthesis of the Left analysis and critique of the contemporary American political economy." -- Frances Fox Piven, The Graduate Center, City University of New York "In The Return of Ordinary Capitalism, Sanford Schram delivers an acute, unflinching, and provocative analysis of our shared conjunctural predicament. In the face of the brutal restoration of business-as-usual capitalism and the widespread intensification of neoliberalized rule, Schram matches incisive analytical critique with a plea to push beyond the politics of left melancholia. The charge here is not only to envisage-but to grasp-radical potentialities on the terrain of the here and now." -- Jamie Peck, author of Constructions of Neoliberal Reason "Schram's volume is a beam of light by one of today's most incisive theorists of neoliberalism and struggles of resistance and transformation. Whether he is discussing changes in social welfare policy, education, the Occupy movement, or his proposal for radical incrementalism, his writing takes us on journeys that are invigorating, insightful, and indispensable." -- Rom Coles, Social Justice Institute, Australian Catholic University, author of Visionary Pragmatism: Radical and Ecological Democracy "The essays gathered together in this book are extraordinarily useful for change makers who seek to understand what it is they are up against in twenty-first-century America that has made effectively altering the status quo and rebalancing the relations of power more and more difficult to achieve." -- Janice Fine, Rutgers University in Perspectives on Politics "Schram moves seamlessly between American political development, path dependence, political economy, social movement analysis, and discourse analysis to develop a powerful argument about our current political and economic moment." -- Mark Sawyer, University of California, Los Angeles in Perspectives on Politics

Selling point: Breaks new ground in explaining how neoliberalism has come to be the prevailing political-economic logic of our time Selling point: Combines political theory, historical investigation, and empirical analysis of contemporary politics and public policymaking Selling point: Suggests "radical incrementalism" as the most meaningful response to the marketization of the welfare state in an age of neoliberalism

Selling point: Breaks new ground in explaining how neoliberalism has come to be the prevailing political-economic logic of our time Selling point: Combines political theory, historical investigation, and empirical analysis of contemporary politics and public policymaking Selling point: Suggests "radical incrementalism" as the most meaningful response to the marketization of the welfare state in an age of neoliberalism