The ‘Social’ Device as Population Government: Configurations and Displacement of Social Policy in Colombia

https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n32.10

Leidy Yolanda González García
Orcid ID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7436-3993
Universidad el Bosque, Colombia
gonzalezleidy@unbosque.edu.co

Cuahutli Alberto Cruz Belmont
Orcid ID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5447-2714
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México
albertocruzbelmont@gmail.com

Abstract:

Applying a critical approach, this paper examines social policy «More families in action» in Colombia. The article inquires for the rationale and aims which guided this program throughout 20 years, and the different wisdoms that led the program to strengthen and become a State policy. As a method, the study draws on a review of institutional archives, encompassing decrees, laws, and studies produced by the State, as well as documents coming from multilateral bodies funding that kind of programs. That archive is put under strain and/or brought to dialogue with theoretical approaches aiming at problematizing social policy. From a social standing-point, as a device, the program allows for intervening people’s lives, have them manage their lives within the frame of the program, all of this so that they fit into what is expected of a ‘good pauper’, thus being inserted into the marketplace.

Keywords: human capital, mechanisms of government, public policies.