Governmentality and Resistance to Neoliveralism in the Work of Michel Foucault. An Attempt to Free Us from Ourselves

Abstract

This article examines the relations between subjectivity and State in the work of Michel Foucault by going in depth into elements that involve strategies to escape forms of neoliberal subjectivation in Foucault's theory. To do so, I analyse how subjectivity emerges from the tension of being a control device and at the same time as a place of resistance. Foucault's strategy is based on the understanding of processes of stateization and state practices, from which we could understand how we have become what we are and, thanks to this process, resist the processes of subjectivation promoted by state practices. By examining Michel Foucault's theory concerning subjectivity and State, I argue that the process of resistance involves a process of recognition through which we understand how I have become ourselves