Me Inc.: The desired identity in initial training in Physical Education

Resumen

The hegemony of neoliberal rationality has produced new forms of population control and regulation. As an institution within this context, the university has been yielding to the laws of the market and called on to construct a certain type of subject accustomed to a new life ethos. Starting from the notion of curriculum as a signifying practice that designs and governs identities, and understood as a form of investment, like any other commodity or consumer good, higher education not only determines to a great extent what people should do, but above all, who they are or can be. As a consequence, it also specifies what they should not be and the problems that this may entail for those who do not conform to its dictates. Based on these assumptions, this article examines some of the activities in an initial training course in Physical Education at a private Higher Education Institution, which aim to subjectify its subjects in order to meet those demands. To this end, a cultural analysis was performed on the written and oral texts collected by means of observations followed by records in field diaries and compilation of electronic messages sent to the university community, as well as advertising campaigns and information available on the institution’s website. The results indicate that the form of subjectification put into circulation by the curriculum designs the identity of the Me Inc. subject.