Conservative Thinking For a Post Liberal Age

This book examines the concept of the fourth industrial revolution and its potential impact on vocational education and training. Broadly located in a framework rooted in critical/radical theory, the book argues that the affordance of technologies surrounding the fourth industrial revolution are constrained by their location within a neoliberal, if not capitalist, logic. Thus, the impact of this revolution will be experienced differently across European regions as well as low and middle income economies.

This book covers how Liberal institutions – constitutional democracy, economic markets, liberal courts, free trade, international human rights – around the world are under assault by the political right and we are witnessing the emergence of post-liberal institutions. These post-liberal institutions are founded on the core conviction that the actions of liberal institutions including the United States Supreme Court are patently unjust. This volume makes the case against post-liberal courts and justice by reconnecting to the principles of moral equality and dignified freedom for all. The intention is to show how there is great untapped potential in the work of Ronald Dworkin’s work to demonstrate that it can help progressive liberals think through the great issues of the day and respond to the contemporary criticisms of the political right. The core themes are concretely illustrated by focusing on some of the most controversial recent post-liberal decisions of the Supreme Court, ranging from election funding to abortion to race-sensitive affirmative action, to economic inequality in an age of increasingly unequal opportunities.