Cultural Sociology in Chile: Moral Orientations and the Explanatory Power of Subjectivity

This article describes how cultural sociology in Chile has study the role of subjectivities in social change. While important historical events and processes were taking place in the country, such as the end of the dictatorship (1990), the return to democracy, and the consolidation and contestation of the neoliberal model, cultural sociology was concerned with understanding the type of subjectivities that were emerging among Chileans and how the latter were responding to these momentous phenomena. While the fields of economics and political science focused on indicators of development and democratic representation, cultural sociology sought to understand how Chileans were processing these changes by examining their experiences, emotions, and moral evaluations. This focus on subjectivity has not been free from controversy, however. One level of dispute concerns the narratives of social change with which intellectual elites interpret the neoliberal transformation, that is, the cultural battle over the Chilean model. While some emphasise the advances of capitalist modernisation and the new, empowered subjectivity of Chileans capable of choosing their own paths, others highlight discontent resulting from individualism and the inequalities generated by the neoliberal transformation – a frustrated subjectivity. A second level refers to the dispute over the interpretation of moral categories that articulate meaning in everyday life – merit, effort, dignity, security, authenticity. While some see in these moral categories a reinforcement of neoliberal values and a neoliberal subject, others see in them a space of resistance that challenges the very consolidation of the neoliberal model, developing subjectivities that are resilient or resistant to the adaptation of this model. At these two levels, cultural sociology in Chile has not only highlighted the explanatory power of subjectivity but has also revealed the frictions involved in using subjectivity as a lens through which to interpret social change.