Melinda Cooper (scholar) explained

Melinda Cooper
Alma Mater:	Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis
Thesis Title:	Nouvelle alliance, nouvelle naissance: la question de la genèse dans la pensée de Deleuze et Guattari
Workplaces:	Australian National University
Fields:	Political economy Political sociology History of capitalism
Known For:	biopolitics, role of family in neoliberal economy, austerity policies

Melinda Cooper (born 1971) is an Australian sociologist and political theorist. Her works deals with the political economy of neoliberalism, biopolitics and the history of capitalism.^[1]

Biography

Cooper holds a PhD from the Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis. She is currently a professor of sociology at the Australian National University, and editorial advisor to the Phenomenal World book series, edited by Chicago University Press.^[2]

She has worked extensively on biopolitics and bioeconomy. Life as Surplus (2008) traced the links between the history of biotechnology and the rise of neoliberalism, looking at scientific, economic, political, and cultural elements.^[3] Clinical Labor (2014), published with Australian sociologist Catherine Waldby, focused on the embodied labor of those working as donors and research subjects in the field of assisted reproduction and experimental drug trials. It suggested that this form of labor posed important challenges to traditional conceptions of labor.^[4]

Her book Family Values (2017) argued that family is central to the development of neoliberal policies such as free market and cuts in public spending.^{[5] [6]} In particular, she states that the neoliberal project entailed shifting the responsibility for deficit spending from the state to the household, in what she sees as an actualization of American poverty laws.^{[7] [8]} The importance of the family as the responsible for this structural role would have facilitated the alliance between seemingly incompatible neoliberal and neoconservative political actors.^{[9] [1]} Kate Doyle Griffiths criticized the book's engagement with social reproduction theory.^[10]

In 2024 Cooper published Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance, named a New Statesman Best Book of the Academic Presses.^[11]

Books

As sole author

• Life as Surplus: Biotechnology and Capitalism in the Neoliberal Era (University of Washington Press, 2008).^[12]
• Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism (Zone Books, 2017).^[13] Re-published in 2019 by Princeton University Press. Translated to Spanish by Traficantes de Sueños.
• Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance (Zone Books/Princeton University Press, 2024).

As co-author

• Clinical Labor: Tissue Donors and Research Subjects in the Global Bioeconomy (with Catherine Waldby) (Duke University Press, 2014).^[14] Translated to German by Assemblage.
• The Asset Economy (with Lisa Adkins and Martijn Konings) (Polity, 2020).^[15] Translated to German by Hamburger Edition.

As editor

• The SAGE Handbook of Neoliberalism (with Damien Cahill and Martijn Konings) (SAGE, 2018).^[16]

Notes and References

1. News: Ezquiaga . Miguel . Melinda Cooper, sociologist: 'The family is the neoliberals' alternative to the welfare state' . 1 December 2024 . El País . 19 December 2023.
2. Web site: Prof Melinda Cooper . Australian National University . 1 December 2024.
3. Web site: Life as Surplus: Biotechnology and Capitalism in the Neoliberal Era . University of Washington Press . 1 December 2024.
4. Web site: Walker . Samuel . Mahoney . Adam . Clinical Labor By Melinda Cooper And Catherine Waldby . Society and Space . 1 December 2024 . 2014.
5. Web site: Family Values . Princeton University Press . 15 March 2019 . 1 December 2024.
6. News: Cooper . Melinda . Mabie . Ben . Family Matters . 1 December 2024 . Viewpoint Magazine . 19 March 2018.
7. Cooper . Melinda . All in the family debt . Boston Review . 1 December 2024 . 31 May 2017.
8. News: Chappel . James . Modern Family . 1 December 2024 . Dissent . 2017.
9. News: Hamburger . Jacob . The Unholy Family . 1 December 2024 . Jacobin . 2018.
10. News: Doyle Griffiths . Kate . The Only Way Out is Through: A Reply to Melinda Cooper . 1 December 2024 . Verso . 26 March 2018.
11. Web site: Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance . Princeton University Press . 26 March 2024 . 1 December 2024.
12. Bellacasa . María Puig de la . September 2009 . Limitless Life and Devastated Living . BioSocieties . en . 4 . 2–3 . 321–325 . 10.1017/S174585520999007X . 1745-8552.
13. Randles . Jennifer . July 2018 . Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism . Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews . en . 47 . 4 . 441–443 . 10.1177/0094306118779814g . 0094-3061.
14. Shim . Janet K. . May 2015 . Clinical Labor: Tissue Donors and Research Subjects in the Global Bioeconomy . By Melinda Cooper and Catherine Waldby. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2014. Pp. ix+279. $89.95 (cloth); $24.95 (paper). . American Journal of Sociology . en . 120 . 6 . 1893–1895 . 10.1086/680592 . 0002-9602.
15. Cook . Julia . July 2021 . Lisa Adkins, Melinda Cooper, and Martijn Konings: The Asset Economy . Journal of Applied Youth Studies . en . 4 . 3 . 303–305 . 10.1007/s43151-021-00042-8 . 2204-9193 . 8059118.
16. Winter 2018 . The SAGE Handbook of Neoliberalism . The Journal of Australian Political Economy . en . 81 . 213 . 2024-12-01 . . ProQuest .