SINCE 2011, a permanent student mobilisation has been taking place in Chile. After the election of Sebastián Pinera as president in 2010, the eruption of the student movement surprised political authorities and even public opinion in different parts of the world, as it introduced a shadow of doubt on the real success of the economic model adopted by Chile during the military period (1973–90).

Today, for the first time since the return of democracy in 1990 and in the context of the recent presidential elections that returned Michelle Bachelet to office, critiques and proposals to reform the economic and political framework established during the dictatorship have become widespread. In the meantime, the centre-left Concertación coalition that ruled the country after the dictatorship (from 1990 to 2010) has been strongly interpellated because of its role in what has been seen as a continuation and even a strengthening of the neo-liberal framework established since 1979, when the so-called ‘seven modernisations’ of the state began. On its behalf, the right-wing parties, which defend what has been ‘constructed’ to date, have been obligated to ‘justify’ [Boltanski and Thevenot, (1991) 2006] in a clearer way the alleged benefits and accomplishments of the current ‘spirit of capitalism’ [Boltanski and Chiapello, (1999) 2007].

A normally drowsy society has suddenly seen itself awakened, beginning to voice protest across different fronts. In Luc Boltanski's terms, the ‘temporary dismantling of critique’ that followed the change in the ‘mechanisms of accumulation’ [Boltanski and Chiapello, (1999) 2007: 29] in Chilean society has come to an end. In this way, accompanied by, and perhaps partly legitimised by, the student movement, other movements have emerged from sectors that are neither youth nor ‘traditional movements’, but that can also be understood as criticising the predominance of economic criteria and the prevailing inequality in living conditions. In this sense, the discourses first raised by the students have made possible the reconstruction of a narrative about injustice, inequality, common good, and political and economic performance as issues that cannot be satisfactorily addressed by the current traditional policy and politics. The public sphere has been revived and, suddenly, debate and divergence have been demonstrated as possible after a long period of overrated consensus.