Forum for Anthropology and Culture, 2018, no. 14

ACTIVATING THE ‘HUMAN FACTOR ’: DO THE ROOTS OF NEOLIBERAL SUBJECTIVITY LIE IN THE ‘STAGNATION ’?

Sergei Alymov
Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences
32a Leninskiy Av., Moscow, Russia
alymovs()mail.ru

Abstract: This article examines the ideas of Soviet philosophers and economists of the 1970s and 80s about personality / Soviet man. The author analyses the views of official philosophers of the conservative and liberal camps on the nature of developed socialism. The reformers (A. P. Butenko, A. S. Tsipko) stressed the growth of the significance of the individual in a modern society and economy, connecting the ‘humanisation’ of society with a growth in consumption and the development of the personality. The orthodox (R. I. Kosolapov) cited the definition of labour as the native essence of man given by Marx. In creating the model of Soviet man, they orientated themselves on the image of the industrial worker (G. L. Smirnov). In their opinion his activity was founded on the coincidence of the interests of the personality and society. This concept was attacked by the criticism that it took no account of ‘human nature’. The reformers pointed to the ‘selfish interests of the person’ and activity connected with them as a biological given. The ‘tough’ peasant often figured as a symbol of this. ‘Activating the human factor’ became a topical point on the reformers’ agenda. T. I. Zaslavskaya put forward a programme for revitalising the economy and the labour ethics of Soviet people by means of market mechanisms. The sociologist Yu. A. Levada radicalised the critique of the idea of Soviet man by putting forward the image of Homo sovieticus and the alternative model of the pragmatic individualist. The article concludes that the image of Homo oeconomicus as a socially approved model was hatched by representatives of the liberal wing of the expert community as early as the 1970s and 80s. The author considers that the roots of ‘neoliberal subjectivity’ are to be found in the period before the market reforms of the 1990s.

Keywords: ideology, Soviet philosophy, personality, subjectivity, Soviet man, Soviet economists, neoliberalism.

To cite: Alymov S., ‘Activating the “Human Factor”: Do the Roots of Neoliberal Subjectivity Lie in the “Stagnation”?’, Forum for Anthropology and Culture, 2018, no. 14, pp. 137–168.

doi: 10.31250/1815-8927-2018-14-14-137-168

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/eng014/alymov.pdf