Social theory as class theory: an analysis of the Brazilian "batalhadores" and the South Korean "non-standard workers"

• Grant number: 25/01630-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 26, 2025
• End date: August 25, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Ethics
• Principal Investigator: Hélio Alexandre da Silva
• Grantee: Sofia Grandini
• Supervisor: Hyunji Kwon
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Seoul National University, South Korea
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/09844-1 - Workers as an object of social philosophy: characterization and forms of suffering - Axis 2 Bag 2, BP.IC

Abstract

This project seeks to analyze the relationship between the concept of "batalhadores", as understood by Jessé Souza in his book Os batalhadores brasileiros: nova classe média ou nova classe trabalhadora? (2010) and the South Korean "non-standard workers" as presented in three works by Hyunji Kwon, namely: "Changing Industrial Relations and Labor Market Inequality in Post-Crisis Korea" (2015), "Labor and management's choices regarding the use of fixed-term workers after the implementation of the Non-regular Worker Protection Act" (2007) and "The Effects of Institutional and Organizational Characteristics on Workforce Flexibility: Evidence from Call Centers in Three Liberal Market Economies" (2009). This last work by Hyunji Kwon was co-authored with Danielle Jaarsveld and Ann Frost. The analysis aspire to show how precariousness in the labor market and instability are aspects present in the descriptions of these workers as presented by the authors who will be investigated. However, in addition to these similarities, the aim is to analyze possible differences that may, based on the texts mentioned above, present distinctions between the batalhadores, in the conception constructed by Souza, and the South Korean non-standard workers, in the conception mobilized by Kwon.