S. Maasen & B. Sutter 
On Willing Selves 
Neoliberal Politics and the Challenge of Neuroscience

The neurosciences propose that the concept of will is scientifically untenable – it is our brain rather than our ‘self’ that controls our choices. Yet we seem to be confronted with increasing free choice in all areas of life. Using up-to-date empirical research in the social sciences and philosophy, this volume addresses the seeming contradiction.

Table of Content

Introduction; S.Maasen & B. Sutter PART I: SELF – PAST AND PRESENT Self-Help: The Making of Neosocial Selves in Neoliberal Society; S.Maasen, B.Sutter & S.Duttweiler Technologies of the Will and their Christian Roots; I>A.Hahn & M.Schorch Governing By Will; S.Maasen , B.Sutter & S.Duttweiler PART II: SELF AND (SOCIO-)SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE Governing the Will in a Neurochemical Age; N.Rose The Person as an Effect of Communication; A.Nassehi PART III: SELF AND POLITICS Creating Citizen-Consumers? Public Service Reform and (Un)Willing Selves; J.Clarke, J. Newman & L.Westmarland Neopolitics: Voluntary Action in the Neoconservative Regime; B.Cruikshank ‘Craving’ Research: Smart Drugs and the Elusiveness of Desire; M.Valverde PART IV: SELF AND MORALITY From Voluntary to Relational Action: Responsibility and Value in a Global Context; K.J.Gergen The Role of the Self-Model for Self-Determination; T.Vierkant

About the author

JOHN CLARKE Professor of Social Policy, Open University, UK BARBARA CRUIKSHANK Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, the University of Massachusetts, USA STEFANIE DUTTWEILER Research Assistant, the University of Basel, Switzerland KENNETH J. GERGEN Mustin Professor of Psychology, Swarthmore College, USA ALOIS HAHN Professor of Sociology, Trier University, Germany AMIN NASSEHI Professor of Sociology, University of Munich, Germany JANET NEWMAN Professor of Social Policy, The Open University, UK NIKOLAS ROSE Professor of Sociology, the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK MAREN SCHORCH Research Assistant, the Department of Sociology, the University of Trier, Germany MARIANA VALVERDE Professor of Criminology, the University of Toronto, Canada TILLMAN VIERKANT Lecturer in Philosophy of Mind at the University of Edinburgh, UK LOUISE WESTMARLAND Lecturer in Criminology, The Open University, UK