Uneasy Neoliberal Governance in a Low-Trust Society: Barriers to Responsibilisation in the Czech Republic

Martin Hájek, Kristián Šrám, Maksym Kolomoiets and Ivan Cuker
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Martin Hájek: Charles University, Czech Republic
Kristián Šrám: Charles University, Czech Republic
Maksym Kolomoiets: Charles University, Czech Republic
Ivan Cuker: Charles University, Czech Republic

Sociological Research Online, 2020, vol. 25, issue 2, 201-218

Abstract: In our research, we examined how, if at all, a neoliberal responsibilisation of individuals is under way in the Czech Republic – a society characterised by low trust in its institutional system. Drawing on Giesler and Veresiu’s model of three-step consumer responsibilisation, we carried out a qualitative analysis of data generated primarily through an originally designed card-matching game and individual interviews, further complemented with field observation. The findings revealed that distrust in market institutions is generally a barrier to responsibilisation of citizens, leading to several kinds of semi-responsibilised subjectivities instead: restrained subjectivity, partially neoliberally responsibilised subjectivity, and economically responsibilised subjectivity. Lack of confidence in established institutions may effectively weaken or change the process of neoliberal responsibilisation of individuals, in particular in non-economic areas such as the environment, health, and social solidarity.

Keywords: governmentality; neoliberalism; responsibilisation; subjectivities; trust (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:25:y:2020:i:2:p:201-218

DOI: 10.1177/1360780419866464

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