Un nuevo primitivo: cultura, género e igualdad en la transformación hacia una sociedad democrática

Abstract

In this paper I analyze the discursive flow that allows the emergence of democratizing policies and a governable male subject in Bogota, Colombia. These policies intend to prevent domestic violence. I initially offer an archeology of the concept Democracia familiar, showing how it addresses the use of violence and seeks to guarantee human rights within family domains as well as in broader social contexts. Then, through a case study of policy implementation, I analyze the construction of an ontological image of manhood, culturally defined as a violent subject and a citizen. I show how this image legitimizes state agent’s governance practices. Finally, I examine the relations between the concept of culture that is implicit in democratizing policies, and government as a scheme that allows state agents to homogenize differences in an effort to establish a civilizing process that aims at achieving a social utopia.