Immaterial labor and Precarization in the context of information and communication technologies: a Brazil-France comparison

• Grant number: 16/18389-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: February 01, 2017
• End date: July 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Henrique José Domiciano Amorim
• Grantee: Henrique José Domiciano Amorim
• Host Investigator: Michael Lowy
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France

Abstract

The aim of this research project is to develop a study on the forms of appropriation of immaterial labor in the sector of technology, call center and R&D. Despite the maintenance of capitalist relations of production, it seems that a new productive continent has been structured, based on the use of forms of labor (non-manual) distinct from those that marked the capitalist production until the 1960s. At first sight, this type of productive activity would not be a form of organization of the traditional labor, typical of the Taylor-Fordist accumulation pattern, to the extent that it would activate predominantly the intellectuality of its productive agents. However, the new forms of labor, especially the immaterial, still seem, despite their differences, to respond to the logic of production and reproduction of profit. In this sense, the characterization, on the one hand, of a new scenario in which the capitalist relations of production are reproduced, but on the other, the radical changes of the forms of production and reproduction of goods, today seem to be directly related to the immaterial production. So it is necessary to analyze what is new and what remains in the labor relations and conditions, which have as their central feature the use of cognition, information, communication, intellectuality and creativity. In other words, it seems central to precise to what extent immaterial labor can be characterized as a productive activity (and a service activity as well) and what are the labor conditions that constitute this type of production in contemporary societies. Therefore, the central objective of our research abroad is to carry out a bibliographic and database research, as well as develop an empirical study on the sector of technology, call center and R&D, which will enable us to support theoretical and empirical comparisons between the forms of utilization of immaterial labor in Brazil and France. (AU)