NGOs and Governmentality in Chile The Case of TECHO and slum eradication programs

Abstract: This qualitative case study analyses the Chilean NGO TECHO, now present in 19 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, from the perspective of Foucault's concept of governmentality, as elaborated by Rose and Miller (2008). They argue that non-state modes of power are the defining features of contemporary societies, and that these operate through loose, associative networks through which actors come to define common perceptions of problems and common aims. Governmentality, it will be argued, operates with certain rationalities translated into programs that seek to shape the conduct of others. In accordance with the theoretical framework, the study focuses on the problematics, practices and programs of slum erradication, in which TECHO has been participating as a constructor of emergency housing and as an intermediate entity between the government and the inhabitants of slums, organizing them to apply for housing subsidies. My main research question is: How has the role of TECHO evolved in relation to the government programs to eradicate campamentos in Chile? The subquestions are: What practices has this role involved, currently and historically? How do these practices enable “government at a distance”? The material for the study was collected during a 2,5 month volunteering period with TECHO in its office in Santiago, and includes 13 qualitative interviews with TECHO directors, government employees, housing committee members and other organizations with experience on housing policies, as well as field observation in a campamento in the Santiago Metropolitan Region and various news sources and government reports. The findings of the study situate TECHO in a complex network of relations, starting with the contruction of mediaguas, to becoming a supplier in the government's constantly failing slum erradication programs. They also show how the neoliberal forms of “government at a distance” and “government through community” involve not so much the shrinking of government but expanding it into new spheres, as is the case with the “Social Inclusion”, a government methodology adopted by TECHO, which involves intervening into both group dynamics through community development and the psycho-social sphere of the group of individuals who have been defined as a problem. As a conclusion, I will argue that these forms of neoliberal governmentality have continuously failed to achieve their aims of erradicating the slums and maintaining social cohesion, as they only address the inevitable consequences of a free-market model that perpetuates inequality.