Abstract

The reorganization of social policies under the criteria of focalization, outsourcing, and performance-based financing, interpellates its beneficiaries and workers, positioning them in a certain way in the deployment of social policy. Considering Chile as an emblematic case of this type of policy, the article presents the results of a discursive analysis of 75 declarative documents issued by the Chilean State between 2003 and 2015 that justify and promote social policies. The results show two key figures in the discourse. First, the beneficiary who is interpellated to act as a trapeze artist, who must take risks to seize opportunities, and who counts with social policies as a net to contain a fall, but must rise again. Second, the policy worker, interpellated to act as a volunteer, who performs his or her work due to a social commitment and not to working conditions. The effects of these constructions and their contradictions are discussed.