See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310508448 Neoliberalism and New Age Chapter · January 2016 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_336-1 CITATION READS 1 645 1 author: María Eugenia Funes National Scientific and Technical Research Council 17 PUBLICATIONS 39 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: “Assessing gender (in)equality in businesses: lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean” View project Espiritualidad y nuevas economías. Hacia una comprensión de las relaciones entre sociabilidades espirituales y nuevas organizaciones económicas en la Argentina View project All content following this page was uploaded by María Eugenia Funes on 10 July 2020. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. N Neoliberalism and New Age Maria Eugenia Funes Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones Laborales, Buenos Aires, Argentina Keywords New Age; Neoliberalism; Individual; Consumption; Autonomy; Entrepreneurship Definition The link between New Age spirituality and neoliberal discourses and practices can be best described by the Weberian concept of elective affinities. Firstly, both phenomena share a focus on the individual, who is thought to be responsible for his/her own destiny in all realms of everyday life. In addition they share the defense of autonomy and the promotion of entrepreneurship as means of achieving personal success both in economic and religious life. The study of the link between neoliberalism and a religious movement requires, first, the definition of the former as a process of production of subjectivities involving the growing influence of certain values rather than an order imposed to passive social agents. Neoliberal reforms around the world were synchronic to transformations in the hegemonic values that constitute social practices. Many authors have highlighted the marketization of social relations as well as their organization around the idea of self-enterprise as two of the main characteristics of this process. Individuals are encouraged to seek their own development and manage themselves to succeed in all dimensions of everyday life, while all forms of state intervention are denounced as ineffective and dangerous for individual freedom. Neoliberalism is, thus, characterized by a growing stress upon individual responsibility. The link between the cosmovision of New Age spirituality and neoliberalism would be best described from a relational perspective rather than in terms of direct influence, cause, nor determination. In this point, following a Weberian perspective, certain elective affinities between both phenomena can be established. The development of New Age spirituality in Latin America during the 1980s was contemporary with neoliberal reforms. One of the main characteristics of New Age is its inclusion of many types of spiritual disciplines, practices, and discourses. This apparently heterogeneous composition shows, however, certain common principles among which we can stress the belief that divinity is located within the individual. This implies a “sacralization of the self” (see “▶ Sacralization of the Self”) that stands out as an obvious affinity with neoliberalism’s stress upon individual responsibility toward its own life. However, New Age and neoliberalism share other less obvious practices and values: social relations mediated by consumption, defense of autonomy, # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 H.P.P. Gooren (ed.), Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_336-1 2 and the promotion of entrepreneurship, among others. As regards consumption, from the very beginning of the movement, New Age practices and disciplines were most generally bought as services. The sale and purchase of religious practices, like yoga or meditation, gave way to the configuration of a spiritual market. This property was interpreted by social sciences in two different directions. A “positive” interpretation celebrated the development of a “spiritual marketplace” as the expression of a growing religious pluralism that weakens traditional religious institutions. This implies the assumption that social agents count with a vast religious offer that favors freedom of choice in a larger context of generalization of the market economy. In addition, this position argues that in the realms of spirituality, identity is generally constructed by individuals (Van Hove 1999). On the other hand, New Age has been generally described as (sometimes accused of being) a “consuming tendency.” The promotion of “self-seeking” was associated with a passive and superficial attitude that encouraged consumerism (Heelas 2008). The tendency of purchasing religious goods and services isn’t, however, exclusive of New Age spirituality. All religious traditions in Latin America count with religiously marked goods that enable individuals to get in touch with divinity by means of consumption (Algranti 2014). Therefore, we can suggest an elective affinity between neoliberalism’s stress on consumption and the positive value of purchasing religious goods and services as a way of reaching divinity. This affinity isn’t privative of New Age, though. Secondly, New Age in Argentina has been described as an incorporation of the demands of autonomy and anti-authoritarianism of the 1960s and 1970s social movements to the realm of religion. New Age spirituality doesn’t establishes a dogmatic path to achieving salvation defined in native terms as the search for individual holistic growth, or “enlightment,” by means of getting in touch with intimacy. On the contrary, spiritual seekers are encouraged to try different practices, in accordance with their own need and preferences, in order to achieve the knowledge of Neoliberalism and New Age “their essence” (Carozzi 2000). As regards spiritual specialists, they generally don’t present themselves as figures of authority. Instead, they define themselves only as “helpful” to a process that relies on the individual. Furthermore, spiritual seekers tend to deny being involved in a collective process of spiritual diffusion. Thus, within the realms of New Age, there is no construction of social identities. Social actors “leave New Age” (see “▶ Leave New Age”), defining their religious practices mostly in individual terms. Other authors claimed that the discourse of selfauthority was a mask that covered the fact that New Age networks present a “multitude of authorities.” This perspective affirms that neoliberalization appears as a combination of technologies of the self that constitute individuals that think they are making choices when they are actually under the influence multiple authorities (Wood 2007). Finally, New Age shares with neoliberalism the promotion of entrepreneurship. Empirical studies in Latin America have shown the way in which positive and “magic” thinking, based on the belief in the “divine power” of the mind and on a holistic conception of the relationship between the person and the world, is spread in workplaces to promote an entrepreneur logic within employees. This is the case of direct sales networks in Mexico described by Gutierrez Zuñiga (2005) and Cahn (2011). Direct selling grew in that country in a context of increasing foreign investment eased by free trade agreements. Anthropological research suggests that people are attracted to this type of freelance work not only by the possibility of making profit but also by of the promise of an inner feeling of achievement given by the belief in individual power to change life conditions. “Alongside the cosmopolitan, entrepreneurial qualities encouraged by neoliberalism, direct sellers seek to return to a primordial past when humans understood how to control their own destinies without relying on anyone else” (Cahn 2011: 15). Neoliberalism and New Age Cross-References ▶ Cultural Industry ▶ Leave New Age ▶ New Age Consumption ▶ New Age in Network Marketing Organizations ▶ Sacralization of the Self References Algranti J (2014) La Industria del Creer. Sociología de las Mercancías Religiosas. Biblos, Buenos Aires Cahn P (2011) Direct sales and direct faith in Latin America. Palgrave Macmillan, New York View publication stats 3 Carozzi MJ (2000) Nueva Era y terapias alternativas. Construyendo significados en el discurso y la interacción. Ediciones de la UCA, Buenos Aires Gutiérrez Zúñiga C (2005) Congregaciones del éxito: interpretación socio-religiosa de las redes de mercadeo en Guadalajara. El Colegio de Jalisco-Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara Heelas P (2008) Spiritualities of life. New age romanticism and consumptive capitalism. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford Van Hove H (1999) L’emergence d’un marché spirituel. Soc Compass 46(2):161–172 Wood M (2007) Possession, power and the new age: ambiguities of authority in neoliberal societies. Ashgate, Aldershot
