Gear Worker: Public Ethics in the Management of Public Childhood Policy in Chile

The implementation of the childhood public policy in Chile finds its guidelines in the model of New Public Management. The management and control systems go through the intervention work for vulnerable children, causing high intensification and tension in the work ethic. In this article we discursively analyze how workers build the meaning of public work in childhood, showing the tensions that emerge in their relationship with politics and its instruments. The results, based on 16 interviews, evidenced three dominant repertoires: between the managerialized worker and the frustrated worker; the superhero worker; and the collective as a refuge and support for the managerial gear. Faced with this dispute over the ethics of the public, it is urgent to rethink childhood policies, highlighting the place of collective articulation, as an organized voice that cannot be absent in its design.