Public Encounters in the Implementation of Social Programs in Chile: Discussions and Prospects of an Emerging Field

Abstract

Public encounters - the meeting between implementers and users of state programmes - are key to the implementation of social policy. This article aims to examine the characteristics of public encounters in a context with deep penetration of neoliberalism such as the Chilean context. Three dimensions that shape public encounters in this context are identified: i) experiences of humiliation in previous interactions with the state generate a predisposition to public encounters marked by distrust; ii) the public encounter acquires a meaning that depends largely on the degree of vulnerability that affects the users of social programmes; and iii) affects act as a mechanism that permeates public encounters both in a sense of disciplining and in the production of critical subjectivities. Cultural patterns and a neoliberal institutional architecture are identified as transversal elements that shape public encounters in social programmes in Chile. The article concludes with reflections in regard to the need to strengthen the role of the State so that implementation conditions that foster relationships between implementers and users are characterized by autonomy and mutual recognition.