Chapter 1: Voice as Value

Chapter 1: Voice as Value

• Human beings narrate their experiences to understand their place in the world. The ability to voice matters, vital for modern democracy.
• A contemporary crisis of voice exists in politics, economics, and culture, lasting for at least three decades.
• The crisis is characterized by a loss of connecting narratives to understand specific breakdowns as a shared issue (like in the UK and USA), alongside sustainable offers of voice being denied, or presented as illusory.
• Neoliberalism (a prevailing doctrine) denies the importance of voice.
• "Voice" has two common meanings: the sound of a person's speech, and voice as an expression of opinion or a distinctive perspective.
• The author uses "voice" differently, distinguishing between "voice as a process" and "voice as a value".
• "Voice as a value" is about valuing frameworks that respect and utilize the process of voice, creating a discrimination against frameworks that deny voice.

Why Voice Matters

• "Voice as a value" is important when a system (like neoliberalism) denies the value of the process of voice.
• Neoliberalism views economic life in a way that devalues voice, extending that view to reduce politics to market mechanisms.
• "Voice" is a connecting term to challenge neoliberalism and its focus on market mechanisms.
• "Voice" represents capacities for social cooperation rather than solely economic processes.
• "Voice" as a term is used to link a value that connects experiences, and the process that is that value's source.

The Neoliberal Context

• Neoliberalism is characterized by specific economic policies (such as the "Washington consensus").
• It emerged as a response to the 1970s global economic crisis.
• Neoliberalism is more than just policies; it's a wider set of metaphors and ways of organizing that impact culture and society. This expanded interpretation is crucial to understanding its impact on voice.
• Neoliberalism is a hegemonic rationality which prioritizes the market.
• Neoliberalism’s dominance is impacting different countries, despite being critiqued and challenged.

Voice as a Process

• "Voice as a process" means the ability to provide a narrative of one's life and experiences, as described by Judith Butler.
• This includes how a person organizes their life in relation to others.
• Voice as a process involves reflexive agency, the capacity for self-interpretation, storytelling, and responsibility for the stories one tells.
• It also involves the capacity to acknowledge or recognize other voices and experiences.
• Voice is inseparable from a person's lived experience and embedded in social relations.
• Recognizing distinct voices is important to avoid harm and recognize differences in experiences and in the material environment
• Voice needs both material and social resources including language and an acknowledgment from other voices.
• Voice can be individual, collective or distributed.

Why Voice Matters (cont.)

• Neoliberalism, though potentially useful in specific contexts, fundamentally denies the value of voice.
• A "voice-denying rationality" is a culture that undermines the provision of voice through social practices, while often accepting voice in theory.
• The value of voice (as described here) comes from valuing human beings' capacities to give accounts of their lives.
• The concepts of voice as a process and as a value challenge the dominance of neoliberal rationality.