publications, get allocated to the followers of that approach. When criti-
cisms emerge and gain attention, the trend reverses and another approach
comes in on the back of the critiques. All this takes place against the
backdrop of, and is influenced by, wider economic, political, and philoso-
phical movements that anthropology draws from and which sometimes
draw also on anthropology. At the peak of a period of rise for an approach,
the propositions it puts forward are regarded as‘truth’, at least by its most
ardent adherents. At the bottom of the trough it may later fall into it may
be discredited as‘untruth’. Not everyone subscribes to these views, or tries
to surf the waves and ride into their highest point, escaping when the wave
sinks. It takes strength, however, to stand outside of a current, and
generally such strength is available only to those whose social position is
secure. The least secure are graduate students, who do not yet have their
Ph.D.s, and will be struggling in the job market after they do receive their
higher qualifications. They have dissertation committee chairs and men-
tors. If they refuse to follow some particular theoretical line, or are caught
out on some technicality such as a difficulty infinishing an exam question
in a specified time, they may beflunked out of the program, or may try to
shift elsewhere. The easiest tack for them is to adopt the prevailing theories
or ideas, and deploy these as a part of their eventual dissertations. An
example that we know of is where a Professor espouses the currently
fashionable term‘neoliberalism’and students are told they should use
this as a primary explanatory device. Predecessors of‘neoliberalism’as a
term included‘underdevelopment’,‘exploitation’, and‘unsustainable’. All
of these terms are descendants, or collaterals of descendants, of Marxist
theorizing, which achieved a vogue in British social anthropology of the
1970s and 1980s. Neoliberalism marks an awareness of the shift of
responsibility onto individuals within state societies and their bureaucra-
cies. Website technology actually has played a big part in this process,
because it makes it more possible for such a shift to happen. But this
process is assuredly not the only process to be taking place, because
collective action and collective movements also continue to be very
prominent.
What we have said here should not be taken to mean a wholesale
condemnation of use of the word neoliberalism. Like all jargon words,
it has its uses. What we are identifying here is the uncritical use of this
term, or any other term, that occurs when it becomes a fad rather than
an analytical tool. Students respond to fashions and they will sprinkle
fashionable terms on their texts in the hope that these will fertilize their
80 BREAKING THE FRAMES