[La categoría “debate” es una sección dedicada a discutir a partir de libros publicados por los contribuidores de Estudios de la Economía. En este post Tomás Ariztía comenta el libro Freedom from Work: Embracing Financial Self-Help in the United States and Argentina, (Stanford University Press 2017) de Daniel Fridman]
Hace algunos meses José Ossandón nos invitó junto con Tomas Undurraga a leer y reseñar el reciente libro de Daniel Fridman. Como un resultado inesperado de esta invitacion terminamos preparando un breve “Book Symposioum” el cual sera prontamente publicado en el Journal of Cultural Sociology . Copio acá abajo mi breve aporte a esa discusion en donde comento algunos aspectos de un libro que realmente disfruté.
Neoliberal Subjects in the making
Friedman’s book presents a compelling and original version of how neoliberalism is enacted in social life. Unlike many books on this topic that have often focused on exploring either the unfold of neoliberal policies or the link between neoliberal ideology and expert knowledge, Freedom from Work presents an empirical sociology of neoliberal subjects “in the making”. The book can be situated therefore along other similar works that, inspired by Foucault, have explored how the neoliberal self is enacted (such as the entrepreneurial self or the business self). This is done by presenting a detailed ethnography of the financial self-help world, particularly about how ordinary people embrace the rules, worldview and calculative tools of financial self-help to transform themselves and to achieve financial freedom.
I found the book very compelling for several reasons. Continue reading