Information society, public policies and the social management of the subjectivity

The subjectivity of contemporary subjects have now more market and political value. Companies profit from invested advertising with the main target (or "good") being individual and collective subjectivity. Governments also benefit through a series of public policies that aim to tell a better quality of life and an inclusion in a supposedly "new" society. The 'other side' is the constant feedback, with the "political profit" increasingly present. The objective is to understand how governments and private companies appropriate individual and collective subjectivity for earning their characteristic profits in the current context of cognitive capitalism, from the traditional financial profit to the power and political profit, having the discussion about citizenship and democratic participation as a great backdrop for the affirmation and perpetuation of public policies aimed at "inclusion". Among the issues that I intend to expand, I emphasize a reflection about situating subjectivity in the information society. I start from the assumption that institutions increasingly aim the subjectivity of contemporary subjects, whether public or private. I also assume that the public policies of digital inclusion are presented in two ways: 1) reaffirm the common sense of social inclusion, citizenship and improved quality of life, 2) make a profit with the political policies toward "inclusion". Such initiatives are presented as power ideological instances that promote an effect of repetition and constant feedback of their own policies, outlining a scenario in which these "initiatives" are "always necessary" and "always promote" inclusion, appropriation, citizenship etc., having the social management of subjectivity as central to the "success" and multiplication of these programs. For the theoretical framework, I mobilize authors as Guattari (2000), Foucault (1999, 2006), Mattelart (2005, 2006) and Pasquinelli (2008).