New Terms of Subjectification of the Social World: A New Human Subjectivity

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Published: Mar 25, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/ethiki.22741
Keywords:
Subjectivity; Postmodernism; Subjectification; Risk Society; Neoliberalism; Ulrich Beck; Michel Foucault; Consumerism
Vasilis Arvanitis
Abstract

This article explores the shifting landscape of human subjectivity within the postmodern horizon of deconstructing bourgeois democracy. The author argues that humanity stands at a critical crossroads, facing a choice between utilizing scientific and technological potential for self-governance or descending into a "television democracy" characterized by economic blackmail and consumerist barbarism. Drawing on the theories of Ulrich Beck regarding the "risk society" and Michel Foucault’s work on "surveillance and punishment," the paper examines how modern neoliberalism and "turbo-capitalism" redefine the individual as a flexible, self-negotiating unit. The study critiques the transformation of the citizen into a consumer and the role of education and media in shaping this new, fragmented subjectivity. Ultimately, it calls for a new form of social subjectification that reclaims political agency against the absolute marketization of human existence.

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