Thread by @paologerbaudo

We are moving from 'exopolitics' of neoliberalism (externalisation, outsourcing, offshoring, exports) to 'endopolitics' of postneoliberal era (reterritorialisation, isolationism, rescue-repair-recovery, domestic demand, insourcing, onshoring).

(The Great Recoil, Intro)

1/ Idea here is that we are facing a topological inversion in contemporary politics. Outwardness of high globalisation gives way to a countervailing trend. This is not just a moment of involution/backlash, but also of re-centering and internal re-organisation of political units.

2/ This trend is similar to many previous Polanyian counter-movements. Globalisation's expansionist drive was unsustainable politically (as shown by populist revolts) and economically (global supply chain disruption, stagnating domestic demand).

3/ Globalisation is a victim of its own success. Having engulfed even the most remote world markets it is now suffering from asphyxia, amid a world of overcapacity, lagging demand and international hypercompetition.

4/ The capitalist class hopes to go even further 'out'. Billionaires dream of space tourism, of mining asteroids, of colonising Mars, of building floating "sea-steading" cities free of tax and regulation.

5/ The decline of globalisation spawns extreme dreams, an "hyper-globalism" in which the capitalist class eventually gets rid of any remaining territorial anchoring; a world that resembles the sci-fi scenario of Elysium.

6/ Yet this is not in tune with the sentiments of the majority of citizens that have become more aware of how much they are "prisoners of place" of the "inside": of their own home, neighbourhood, country, and are more concerned with making the best of the site they live in.

7/ Examples of this inward turn abound. From emphasis on insourcing of public services (reversing outsourcing practices), to discussions of onshoring of previously offshored activities, to the psychological effects of Covid and the "cave mentality" it is deemed to have nurtured.

8/ Some of the manifestations of this inward turn are clearly regressive: right-wing chauvinism, hard borders, cultural defensiveness. But other manifestations, such as push for economic relocalisation, are quite rational "homeostatic response" to imploding globalisation.

9/ All in all this sets up a radically different horizon for policy-making than the one we are accustomed to. Politics, economy and, more so, ecology, demand a different vision, in which economic/cultural interconnectedness does not mean loss of autonomy, control and protection.

/end