Indebted, i have to: Government of life by finance

Abstract

In this paper, I problematize the financialization of life, from the perspective that debt policy is a form of biopolitics within neoliberal capitalism. Initially, I discuss Foucauldian concepts. Next, along with thinkers like Deleuze, Lazzarato, Fontenelle, Hardt and Negri, I approach the constitution of the culture of consumption and financial capitalism, a socio-political-economic configuration in which the subjective figure of the indebted man is produced due to the centrality of the creditor-debtor relationship. Analysis concerning the 2008 crisis, materials of researches I have done, and reports on public debt and the so-called essential reforms are some of the subsidies I use to discuss these issues that point to a twist in the biopolitical principle in debt society: if you can pay, you live; if you cannot, you can die. Aiming to compose a refusal to the present forms of government and to make other experiences possible, I outline lines for the development of an education regarding consumption and credit-debt.

Keywords

• dívida
• capitalismo neoliberal
• governo biopolítico
• processos de subjetivação
• educação