Sociology of the sociology of labor in Brazil: between professionalization and public engagement

• Grant number: 10/03176-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - New Frontiers
• Start date: August 01, 2010
• End date: July 23, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Ruy Gomes Braga Neto
• Grantee: Ruy Gomes Braga Neto
• Host Investigator: Michael Boris Burawoy
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States

Abstract

Despite the existence of important bibliographic assessments of labor sociology in Brazil focusing on several periods of configuration and development of this knowledge, our literature still lacks a study of the evolution of the different research programs about the universe of Brazilian labor able to articulate them to the different practices - professional, policy, critical and public - existing in our disciplinary field. It's about one of the main contributions of the theory of division of sociological labor that fundaments Michael Burawoy's proposal of a "public sociology". Aiming to analyze the relation between sociological programs and practices, we will depart from the hypothesis that argues that Brazilian labor sociology was characterized, in its origins, by a search of professionalization (1950/1960); later it developed a strong critical sense and public engagement, allowing for the conformation of certain social identities (1970/1980); finally it would develop into a policy sociology (1990/2000). Besides, we aim to examine the influence of American professional sociology of labor and organizations on the origins of Brazilian professional sociology, and to analyze the impact produced by Harry Braverman's work on the country's public labor sociology during the 1970's and 1980's. Finally, we'll attempt to compare the contemporary evolution of labor sociology in Brazil, focused during the decade of 1990 and beginning of 2000 on the formulation, implementation and analysis of public policies, with the metamorphosis of the American research program of labor sociology. This will allow us to evaluate the singularity of the contemporary evolution of our own labor sociology through the comparison with a research program that, through a sociological habitus characterized by an engagement with the "new unionism", has also leaned towards extra-academic audiences. (AU)