ABSTRACT
Neoliberalism cannot be interpreted as a simple not doing or the reign of the free market; it is instead a project of institutional change. The accumulation of capital, the constitution of the labor force, and an operative notion of conflict are tied together via the ambivalent dynamics of subjectivation under neoliberal governmentality in Latin America. This chapter highlights the emergence of neoliberalism as a response to specific struggles. Therefore, Foucault must be completed from our region, starting with the dictatorships that came to power to repress a cycle of worker, neighborhood, and student struggles. Then we must think about the revolts of the last decade against the political legitimacy of neoliberalism in genealogical terms. The crisis of 2001 in Argentina implied a mutation in neoliberalism because it was the first massive response after the dictatorship. The 2001 crisis—as part of a regional cycle—set up the beginning of the post-dictatorship, and the “veto power” of social movements produces a political force in the crisis. Now, the feminist movement deploys another kind of struggle against neoliberalism. From there, it is possible to ground the critique of neoliberalism as a mode of power, dispossession, and subjectivation. This chapter thus develops a genealogy from below.
