Many continue to find it useful to avoid the term—preferring “advanced liberalism,” distinguishing between “financialization” and neoliberalism, or insisting on neoliberalization as a verb rather than a noun. The authors in this book find it perfectly acceptable to use a word with a contested definition. Rather than jettisoning the term altogether, they seek to add precision to its use, examine its conceptual background, clarify important building blocks, and observe its evolution as a result of the interplay of intellectual debate, changing circumstances, and, not least, social struggles.

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 15