Critical Autoethnography of a Home: Housing Insecurity, Mental Health and Resilience in Neoliberal Times
Abstract
Pudahuel is the address of the home where I grew from childhood through part of my youth. It is also a decisive fissure that marked a before and after in my life. Today, after eighteen years, I confront the violation of my right to housing that I suffered. In this work, I discuss how, from the perspective of neoliberal governmentality, resilience was managed as a technology of the self in the face of residential insecurity and its damage to mental health. Using autoethnographic methodology, I analyze the meanings I evoked through Foucault’s theorized governmentality. I begin by contextualizing the banking fraud that struck my family during the Global Financial Crisis. Subsequently, I illustrate the damage that residential insecurity inflicts on mental health. Finally, I critically articulate the notion of resilience as a technology of the self.
Keywords
Neoliberalism, Foucault, Housing, Resilience, AutoethnographyReferences
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