This article discusses the contribution of the concept of social property (Castel, 1998; 2000) for understanding contemporary modes of subjectification. The genealogy of a salaried society proposed by the author allows us to take social propriety as support for existence and as a guarantee of egalitarian rights. The transformations of the modes of subjectification that are associated with the new model of capitalistic accumulation has reinstalled inequality and insecurity as forms of revitalization of competition as a central value in liberal society. In this text we use Castel's comprehensive model in order to analyse the corresponding modes of social propriety in Brazilian history and their impact on the relationship between work and the modes of subjectification.
social property; work; modes of subjectification; ethics; individualism