THE "SUBJECT OF INTEREST" AND THE NEW CONFIGURATIONS OF SUBJECTIVITY IN THE CONTEXT OF BIOPOLYTICS

Abstract

The work developed by Foucault during the course of 1979 ("The birth of biopolitics") consists of a critique of the neoliberal critique of the excessive state presence in the life of the subjects. The measure from which neoliberal criticism is established is the presence / absence of freedom within the market. By extending the logic that guides the conduct of the subjects in the market to the sphere of political regulation, the neoliberal discourse intended, according to Foucault, to inhibit the action of the State and, at the same time, to restore the freedom once suppressed by the sovereign power. Foucault's analysis radically contradicts the neoliberal belief: through the production of this freedom and its conditions, a new "art of governing" is introduced into the lives of the subjects within the framework of the so-called biopolitics, setting new regimes for the production of subjectivities.