The “neoliberal subjectivity” as class consciousness. An approach to the evolution of workers' consciousness from the critique of political economy.

Abstract

In recent times we have witnessed, at least in Western countries, the weakening of the bonds of solidarity that gave rise to what has come to be called “class consciousness”. A redefinition of the latter category in the light of the determinations uncovered by the critique of political economy leads us to think that, rather than a disappearance, a mutation has taken place. The fact that class agents, particularly the working class, do not recognise themselves as class agents is a consequence of the fact that they are members of a class. It is different mechanisms, among which we highlight the new dynamics of consumption, which concern them as such that lead them to assume the ideology which, from Foucauldian coordinates, has been called “neo-liberal subjectivity”.