The Reconfiguration of University Teachers' Subjectivity in Colombia:Self-Exploitation and Psychopolitical Control in Late Modernity

Abstract

This article critically analyzes the reconfiguration of the subjectivity of Colombian university professors in late modernity, marked by the commodification of knowledge, academic performativity, and psychopolitical control. The central problem lies in how the research professor has been transformed into an "entrepreneur of the self," driven by the neoliberal imperative of "can-do" and immersed in self-exploitation. The main objective is to understand the historical and cultural processes that have shaped this subjectivity, as well as their ethical and educational implications. The research employs the genealogical method, drawing on thinkers such as Foucault, Han, Heidegger, and De Sousa Santos, to trace a shift from disciplinary power to psychopower within the framework of cognitive capitalism. The analysis revolves around two axes: modern instrumental rationality, which instrumentalizes the teaching profession, and the university-market dynamic, which promotes self-exploitation through symbolic incentives and productivity demands. The results show that global policies (such as the Bologna Declaration and OECD guidelines) have configured the teacher as a functional actor within the educational-market system. The main conclusion is that this transformation represents a subtle form of domination, in which the teacher voluntarily reproduces systemic logic, sacrificing autonomy and well-being, in the search for self-construction as a professional, as an entrepreneur of oneself, who self-exploits in freedom.