Neoliberalising working-class subjectification through affirmative action policies: managerial leadership and ontological coaching in higher education

Abstract

ABSTRACT Drawing on the notions of neoliberal governmentality, regime of subjectification, as well as on the ordoliberal conception of social policy, self and class, I analyse how neoliberalism is entrenched in the formation of the affirmative action policy in higher education in Chile. Based on a fieldwork focused on the two main affirmative action programmes in Chile -Induction Access Programmes and PACE-, I constructed a counter-archival assemblage to identify the main policy agents creating opportunities to extend and implement affirmative action programmes and mobilising specific conditions to enact entrepreneurial technologies in the design of affirmative actions. Two related entrepreneurial technologies of the self, namely, managerial leadership and ontological coaching, were identified. They were part of a regime of neoliberal subjectification unfolded in the mandatory modules to harness the working-class students’ affective entrepreneurial vitalities as both the true ontology of their selves and the desirable features that make them the legitimate and responsible subjects of right to higher education.