Do poder ao discurso de meritocracia: a Universidade enquanto lugar a ser conquistado

Abstract

This dissertation aims to present the results of this research which analyzes the relationship of the meritocracy discourse with the constitution of the university space, being included in the domain of Foucauldian Discourse Studies and, therefore, based mainly on the work of Michel Foucault, with emphasis on archegenealogy. It is presented, as corpus for the constitution of the archive of this research, ten institutional statements taken from advertisements of the Ministry of Education (MEC), which circulated on broadcast TV between the years 2016 and 2017, discussing the National High School Exam (ENEM) and, in a second moment, a selection of ninety-two statements taken from ten interviews with freshmen students in undergraduate courses at the Federal University of Goiás - Regional Catalão/UFCAT in transition, conducted from September to November 2020. First, we discuss the relevance of the problematization of the study, raising the problem of the body as a political object, of merit and of neoliberalism. Subsequently, there is the explanation of the fundamental concepts to the development of the analysis, followed by the discussion about neoliberalism and biopolitics in ENEM and the presentation of the enunciative series of institutional statements. In the next step, the modality of the semi- structured interview is presented (MINAYO, 2001) and, also, the type of transcription adopted, in this research the naturalistic one (AZEVEDO, et al., 2017). Then, the enunciative series (FOUCAULT, 2019) of statements from the interviews are elaborated, distributed in three thematic paths (GUILHAUMOU; MALDIDIER, 1997), namely: 1) The objectification of the university; 2) To which demand does the university respond? and 3) The effects of truth in the production of subjectivity of the freshmen. From this, one can visualize the relation of the freshmen subject with the university, including as a meritocratic space, since the analysis identifies the discourse of meritocracy in the corpus. Thus, considering the archegenealogical analysis as a method, we arrive at the confession practices (FOUCAULT, 2006a) of the subject, when confessing in relation to the university and objectifying it in what he/she enunciates. In this way, the heterogeneity of the university is observed to the freshmen subject, since it is configured as many and diverse spaces, with diverse bodies and subjects circulating, approaching what Foucault (2010b) calls heterotopia, marking bodies, architectures and structures of operation in the spaces. Throughout the analysis, we discuss the device of the university as a place to be conquered, highlighting the practices that objectify and subjectivize the new student subject, such as the institutional discourse of meritocracy and, also, the space of the university, including the process that selects who occupies it. In the closing remarks, the discussions and the results of the research are briefly reviewed, covering the objectives set out, especially that of analyzing the relationship between the discourse of meritocracy and the space of the university, based on the selected enunciations.