| Sumario: | In this essay, I study the socialization of an economic ethic in Argentina's middle classes by describing the attempts to shape economic behavior in Waldorf schools located in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. I analyze this influence on economic subjectivity in two empirical dimensions: individual consumption and sustainable practices; and communal decision-making. I focus both on the attempts to instill and practice specific economic principles and on the practical and structural limits actors and communities face when trying to change the principles that guide their behavior. Drawing from a qualitative research strategy, this essay shows that, even if this economic ethic is lived as countercultural, it is aligned with neoliberal principles and often fails to address the economic inequalities and injustices within its own domain. The purpose of this essay is to show that the impact of spiritual ideas on economic subjectivities in Latin America is present among middle classes, historically characterized as a model of modernity and, therefore, secularism. I aim to achieve this purpose by showing the impact of spiritual disciplines and practices in the building of economic subjectivities among Argentina´s middle classes. I will illustrate my argument by analyzing the diffusion of anthroposophy among a part of Buenos Aires' middle classes that get in touch with this discipline in Waldorf schools where they educate their children. I will organize my exposition in three moments. In the first part, I will describe Rudolf Steiner's Social Threefolding Theory, which synthesizes anthroposophy's suggestions for the organization of society, with a special emphasis on economics. Then, I will analyze the diffusion of this theory in workshops and reading groups, organized locally by men and women involved with Waldorf schools. Here, I will show not only the ideas proposed by organizers about the right ways of orienting economic practices, but also the comments, memories, and tensions mentioned by participants. Finally, I will describe some alternative economic organizations, created among these societies, that aim to achieve a "better world" by applying these theories to Argentine society. By means of this analysis, I will argue that, even if suggesting intimate and, in Max Weber's terms, mystical models of spirituality, these contemporary versions of anthroposophy encourage people to change their worldly actions as a way to "change the world," thus developing a world-oriented model of spirituality.
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