The Neoliberal Mobilization of Empathy in the Era of the Financial Crisis: A Case-Study

What is it about?

This essay analyzes the entanglement between the contemporary discourse of empathy and the neoliberal imaginary, arguing that it threatens the (already strained) relationship between empathy and justice. Joining current scholarly debates about the pro-social effects of empathy, the essay focuses on a specific case study: the 2009 criminal trial of Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, two Wall Street executives charged with conspiracy and fraud after their hedge fund collapsed. Their criminal trial, which was one of the first prosecutions originating from the credit crunch, ended with a surprising acquittal. In this study, I analyze how the defense made skillful use of the discourse of empathy in order to affect the jury’s final decision. Their strategies, I argue, drew power from the broader cultural context of the neoliberal embrace of empathy – and the underlying beliefs, expectations, and confusions that accompany this embrace.

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