Childhood in face of neoliberal rationality: mediatization and desymbolization of language in complex societies

Abstract

This bibliographical article discusses the interface between mediatization and childhood in a neoliberal society, giving special emphasis to the processes of language impoverishment and the desymbolization of the imaginary that occur in the contemporary context. In line with Dardot and Laval (2016), neoliberalism is understood as a rationality that goes beyond the limits of the market and transversalis the different dimensions of society. In the first section of the study,the phenomenon of early childhood mediatization is discussed, seeking to identify how neoliberal norms are present in this process. In the second section, the existing interrelationship between mediatization and changes in the imaginary is analyzed, as well as how they are related to neoliberal rationality. It is concluded that digital media consist of an efficient strategy for the production of neoliberal subjectivity, as they allow the internalization of norms of conduct, development of psychic habits that aim at immediate satisfaction and the appeal to consumption. These changes, in turn, reflect on the impoverishment of the imaginary which, consequently, becomes an obstacle in the search for alternative rationalities to neoliberalism.