Abstract

This presentation focuses on Neoliberalism from the perspective of its socio-cultural effects. As has been discussed, Neoliberalism as an economic model was accompanied by the introduction of new models of society and of the individual. It has been argued that promotes depoliticization; impulses a model of the individual based upon self-effort and the ideal of the entrepreneurial self; legitimizes a perspective centered on the individual, rather than on collective structures, among others (Amable 2011; Davies 2014; Bröckling, 2015). Summing up to these contributions I would like to address the impacts of Neoliberalism on the social bond by discussing how social moralities have changed, affecting the normative premises, the keys to interpretation, and the expectations of individuals regarding society and the relationships to each other, as well as their strategies for coping with social life. I will develop this argument based upon 20 years of empirical research on the consequences of structural transformations on individuals and the social bond in the case of Chile, the first laboratory of neoliberalism and one of the most radical cases of its implementation.

Short Bio

Kathya Araujo is PHD in American Studies and a Professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IDEA) of the Universidad de Santiago de Chile. She is the Director of the Project Individuals, Social Bonds and Power Asymmetries (MIUMAP). Her main research fields are the social bond, individuation and subject configuration; the relationship of individuals with norms. In the past twenty years, she has conducted several research projects on the structural transformations in Chilean society and their effects on individuals and the social and political bond. Currently she conducts research on individualism and authority. She is author of more than 20 books, among them Desafíos Comunes. Retrato de la sociedad chilena y sus individuos (Shared challenges. Portrait of Chilean Society and its Individuals, with  Danilo Martuccelli, 2 Vols. LOM, 2012) , El miedo a los subordinados. Una teoría de la autoridad (Fear from subordinates. A theory of authority. LOM, 2016); ¿Cómo estudiar la autoridad? (How to study authority? Ed. USACH, 2021), and The Circuit of Detachment (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

Email address for registration: stefano.palestini@unitn.it