Economías ansiosas de la vida universitaria: un estudio sobre experiencias, afectos y órdenes exigenciales en la universidad chilena neoliberalizada

Identifier:  TDX:4266

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX4266

Authors:  Cifuentes Astete, Angela Nathalia

Abstract:
The question that guided the research was how do the exigential, normative and value-based orders of the neoliberalised Chilean university context encourage modes of anxious affection expressed in university experiences? Specific objectives: 1) to describe the process of neoliberalisation of the Chilean University during the last 40 years, the concerns about university discomfort have progressively become an object of preoccupation. 2) to characterise how the professionals of University Mental Health Devices (SMU) understand and manage the suffering of students. 3) To describe university experiences of anxiety and how they are linked to everyday university life. 4) To understand the process of becoming a student and the main sources of university anxiety. To address these objectives, I conducted a qualitative multi-case study in three Chilean universities. I interviewed 21 university mental health professionals (semi-structured free-ended interviews) and conducted in-depth open-ended interviews with 44 students. I studied 6 student cases. In general terms, the findings of this research indicate that the experiences of university anxiety are characterised by differential aspects according to gender and social class, with women of all social classes experiencing anxiety linked to the demands of university life, referring both to performance, experiences of inequality, and tension of expectations. In the case of students, it is students from lower classes, usually the first generation of their families to enter university, who suffer the most in relation to these dimensions. However, the demands involved in the experiences have complex and differential elements depending on the university. On the part of the professionals, some controversies emerged regarding the demands placed on them (by the accreditation system, by the institution and by student demands).