Ontology of Semiformation in times of neoliberalism

Abstract

This article proposes to establish a dialogue with Theodor Adorno's Theory of Semiformation, written in 1959, in the context of social welfare capitalism. The objective is to emphasize its relevance in addressing the crisis of contemporary cultural formation, in which the form of neoliberal capitalism prevails and, at the same time, to detect new constitutive nuances of this theory in this historical moment. In this trajectory, the text will follow the steps: Semiformation Theory as a diagnosis of the crisis of cultural formation in the late 1950s; the ways in which the ontology of semiformation is constituted in times of neoliberalism; the new forms this cultural crisis is progressively installing itself in the classrooms; and the need to counter new manifestations of resistance. The article sought theoretical support in Dardot and Laval (2016) to capture the specificities of contemporary neoliberalism.