Configuration of Subjectivities and the Application of Neoliberal Economic Policies in Medellin, Colombia

Juan David Villa-Gómez, Juan F. Mejia-Giraldo (), Mariana Gutiérrez-Peña and Alexandra Novozhenina
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Juan David Villa-Gómez: Psychology Research Group (GIP), Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín 050001, Colombia
Juan F. Mejia-Giraldo: Epilión Research Group, Faculty of Advertising, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín 050001, Colombia
Mariana Gutiérrez-Peña: Psychology Research Group (GIP), Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín 050001, Colombia
Alexandra Novozhenina: Faculty of Education and Humanities, Universidad Católica Luis Amigó, Manizales 170001, Colombia

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-22

Abstract: (1) Background: This article aims to understand the forms and elements through which the inhabitants of the city of Medellin have configured their subjectivity in the context of the application of neoliberal policies in the last two decades. In this way, we can approach the frameworks of understanding that constitute a fundamental part of the individuation processes in which the incorporation of their subjectivities is evidenced in neoliberal contexts that, in the historical process, have been converging with authoritarian, antidemocratic and neoconservative elements. (2) Method: A qualitative approach with a hermeneutic-interpretative paradigm was used. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 41 inhabitants of Medellín who were politically identified with right-wing or center-right positions. Data analysis included thematic coding to identify patterns of thought and points of view. (3) Results: Participants associate success with individual effort and see state intervention as an obstacle to development. They reject redistributive policies, arguing that they generate dependency. In addition, they justify authoritarian models of government in the name of security and progress, from a moral superiority, which is related to a negative and stigmatizing perception of progressive sectors and a negative view of the social rule of law and public policies with social sense. (4) Conclusions: The naturalization of merit as a guiding principle, the perception of themselves as morally superior based on religious values that grant a subjective place of certainty and goodness; the criminalization of expressions of political leftism, mobilizations and redistributive reforms and support for policies that establish authoritarianism and perpetuate exclusion and structural inequalities, closes roads to a participatory democracy that enables social and economic transformations.

Keywords: neoliberal subjectivity; neoliberalism; economic policies; neoconservatism; radical right (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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