Mirar el rostro de Medusa sin convertirse en piedra. Para una arqueo-genealogía del neoliberalismo

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to circumscribe Michel Foucault’s contributions to the critique of neoliberalism. For this, the article reconstructs the methodological strategies deployed throughout Naissance de la biopolitique. First, we explain the role that «archeology» and «genealogy» play in the aforementioned Course. Second, we claim that both methodological strategies allow defining a new «empiricity» about neoliberalism. Finally, we observe how the archeo-genealogy of neoliberalism reconfigures a large part of contemporary debates. According to the hypothesis of this article, Naissance de la biopolitique not only expands the historical points of reference –including Ordoliberalism and the Social Market Economy among other variables of analysis–, but also teaches how to analyse neoliberalism from a different perspective. What Foucault proposes, in a word, is a deep transformation of our gaze of neoliberalism.