Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Industries – Sociological aspects'

"October 2008"
Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy, Dept. of Sociology 2009.
Bibliography: leaves 273-293.
Introduction -- Patterns of corporate activity as patterns of corporate dominance: legal, organisational, and economic features of corporations -- Representations of corporate dominance in insidious injuries -- The legal basis of corporate dominance: History of the corporation -- Legal individualism and corporate personhood -- Theories of the corporation -- The legal regulation of corporations - corporate liability laws -- Conclusion.
Corporations are no longer simply a type of business structure; they are dominant social institutions. As institutions, corporations are archetypes of contemporary complex social organisation and should, therefore, be a central concern for sociology. Yet with few notable exceptions, sociologists have failed to address their increasingly dominant position in contemporary societies. In this thesis I argue the importance of a renewed sociological interest in corporations. This must acknowledge, but go beyond, the political-economic outcomes of corporations to address the profound consequences of the legal foundations of the corporate form. Corporations are created and regulated by legal doctrine; it is only with a legal mandate that corporations are able to act as employers, suppliers and investors. On this basis, I claim that any understanding of corporate dominance and its effects must commence with an appreciation of the laws that enable the corporation to exist and operate. -- While contributing significantly to wealth creation, corporate dominance also increases the potential for harm to occur to individuals and communities who fall within a corporation's scope. The contemporary proliferation of industrial illnesses is a prime example of this and is examined through a case study of the operations of an Australian asbestos corporation, James Hardie. This case study is timely and unique in its specification of the link between corporate activity and law in contemporary society. -- I argue that corporate activity such as that in the case study is enhanced and legitimated by the legal description of the corporation that assigns to it the capacities of a human individual through corporate legal personhood. Corporate personhood is examined as an example of the legal individualism endorsed in liberal common law countries. By exploring accounts of corporate structure, decision-making and work processes, I explain how the individualised description of the corporation is at odds with its collective realities; the largest and most successful corporations are collectives of human and monetary resources. -- In light of this, I question the extent to which the effective regulation of corporations can be achieved within existing legal frameworks. Building upon research into workplace health and safety in the United Kingdom, the regulation of workplace deaths in Australia is examined to demonstrate the various approaches to regulating corporations and to identify their shortcomings. This is a striking example of the problems law faces in regulating corporations by virtue of its individualistic design. -- The thesis concludes with an affirmation that sociology needs to grapple with issues of corporate activity and that an understanding of the legal basis of the corporation is the foundation of such studies.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
295 leaves

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sociologia Politica.
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Esta dissertação consiste num estudo sociológico sobre as mudanças na relação capital-trabalho no setor têxtil e vestuário blumenauense e a constituição da Fino Toque Têxtil Cooperativa. Desde 1990, os reflexos da crise do capital ampliam o desemprego e favorecem o desmonte do trabalho coletivo, a intensificação da jornada de trabalho e o processo de informalização do trabalho. As cooperativas têxteis e vestuaristas emergem no cenário citadino, como uma possibilidade de resolver essas crises, mas também como alternativa aos trabalhadores de gerar trabalho e renda, de forma não assalariada. A Fino Toque foi fundada nesta perspectiva e num momento de expressivo aumento das experiências autogestionárias. Para compreendê-la analisou-se a expansão da industrialização no setor têxtil e vestuário em Blumenau e as estratégias de acumulação de capital, assim como, o seu contrário, os conflitos de classe e a constituição das forças do trabalho. Na viabilização deste estudo utilizou-se o método qualitativo associado às técnicas de estudo de caso e análise de trajetórias ocupacionais. A pesquisa viabilizou-se por meio das contribuições dos cooperados e ex-cooperados da Fino Toque, o presidente do Sindicato Têxtil e do Vestuário e um representante da assessoria técnica da ITCP/FURB. Os resultados da pesquisa apontaram que o processo de expansão industrial no setor têxtil e vestuário blumenauense foi acompanhado pelos conflitos de classe. Ampliação do trabalho não significa o aumento do assalariamento. Os sindicatos do setor atuam dentro das possibilidades históricas, incentivando os trabalhadores a buscarem alternativas ao desemprego, especialmente, na perspectiva da defesa das relações assalariadas. A Fino Toque desponta como uma possibilidade de organização das forças de trabalho. Entretanto, a Cooperativa encontra inúmeras dificuldades estruturais e históricas para viabilização econômica e fortalecimento dos valores autogestionários. Essas experiências demonstram aspectos relevantes para análise de um processo de transição que se evidencia, mas está metamorfoseado. This dissertation consists a of sociologic study about the change in the relationship capital-work of the Blumenau textile and clothing sector and the 'Fino Toque' Cooperative Textile's constitution. Since 1990, the reflexes of capital's crisis project the unemployment, the take of collectives work, increase and intensify of the working day and an enlargement of the informal process from work. The textile and clothing Cooperatives emerge like possibility to solve those crises, but also like alternative from workers to generate job and income, of form not salaried employee. The 'Fino Toque' was found in this perspective and at a moment from increase expressive of auto management experience. To understand it, was analyze the expansion of production in the textile and clothing sector in Blumenau and the strategies of capital accumulated, like so, its other-wise, the classes' conflicts and the constitutions of the working forces. In the feasible of this study was use the qualification method associated to techniques of study and analyses of occupy trajectory. The research was feasible through of the 'Fino's cooperatives' and ex-cooperatives contributions, the Textile and of the Clothing Union's President and a ITCP/FURB access technique's representative. The research's results show that the process of industrial expansion in the Blumenau Textile and Clothing sector was accompanied for the class' conflicts. The enlargement of working doesn't mean the increase of salaried. The institutions that represent the working class act with the historic possible, incentive the workers to get alternatives for job. The 'Fino Toque' rises like a possibility of organization of the working forces and frailest capitalist presupposes. However, the Cooperative finds many structure and historic difficulty economic feasible and strengthen of the auto managements values. This experiences show importance aspects for analysis of a process of transition that evidence itself, but is in metamorphose.

Orientador : Maria de Nazareth Baudel Wanderley
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas
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Resumo: Não informado
Abstract: Not informed
Mestrado
Mestre em Sociologia

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas.
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Analisa as relações de gênero na educação profissionalizante e especificamente aborda o Colégio Industrial de Lages. A analise parte da perspectiva sociológica e interdisciplinar e evidencia as relações de gênero na construção social. Estas mesmas relações de gênero constituem aspectos fundamentais na explicação do porquê a educação produz e reproduz assimetrias entre as práticas femininas e masculinas, constrói e reconstrói a divisão social e sexual do trabalho.

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sociologia Política
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Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sociologia Política, Florianópolis, 2016.
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Nosso objetivo é analisar o que denominamos campo acadêmico dos estudos alimentares constituído por disciplinas como engenharia de alimentos, nutrição, tecnologia de alimentos, entre outras. Entendemos campo como o lugar de disputas por reconhecimento e legitimidade que delimitam as atuações dos seus componentes. Os componentes analisados são os professores que atuam nas universidades e na formação profissional. Devido à centralidade que as controvérsias científicas sobre alimentos saudáveis e os riscos alimentares têm na sociedade contemporânea, procuramos identificar como aquelas aparecem no campo estudado. Discutimos este tema a partir da ótica dos cientistas e engenheiros de alimentos que atuam na academia. Essa é uma pesquisa que pode ser considerada pioneira na área de sociologia da alimentação e na área dos estudos sociais da ciência e da técnica e, por este motivo, em certa medida, exploratória. Abordamos a trajetória da construção das disciplinas deste campo, bem como suas diferenças na UFSC (Brasil) e na Ulg (Bélgica). Realizamos pesquisa documental sobre os cursos, seus currículos e as políticas governamentais de ensino superior; análise de artigos acadêmicos; entrevistas semi-estruturadas, tendo como fio condutor as definições e significados do que entendem por alimento saudável e as implicações deste segmento em suas pesquisas. Argumentamos que a interface entre o campo da saúde e da alimentação é uma zona de tensão em que a definição do que seja considerado saudável torna-se um importante argumento na disputa por legitimidade, reconhecimento e espaço de atuação. Esta tensão reflete-se, por exemplo, na falta de consenso sobre o lugar da nutrição entre estes dois campos, pois embora os conhecimentos nutricionais sejam a base para as alegações sobre a saúde dos alimentos que são industrializados, o curso de nutrição não é necessariamente reconhecido como parte desse campo. A análise do campo acadêmico no Brasil e na Bélgica facilitou identificar articulações entre a academia e outros atores no processo de produção do conhecimento científico e nas tensões envolvidas neste processo. Partindo da concepção de que o campo não é uma estrutura estática, mas que depende das negociações entre diferentes setores na sua construção e manutenção, identificamos as interfaces da academia com as políticas públicas de ensino superior e de desenvolvimento econômico que, por sua vez, influenciam a maneira como os professores atuam no processo de construção de conhecimentos e inovações científicas. Nesse contexto os financiamentos de pesquisa têm um importante papel e a maneira como eles estão estruturados nos dois países se traduz no habitus profissional, criando no Brasil umaconcorrência individual e na Bélgica uma concorrência de ?networks?. Argumentamos que esta concorrência influencia como os entrevistados percebem sua área de atuação, defendendo um formato do campo mais abrangente (tradicional) ou mais especializado e diversificado (revolucionário), de acordo com a disponibilidade de recursos e de mercado. O posicionamento tradicional ou revolucionário reflete, portanto, não só uma luta pelo reconhecimento, mas também pelo espaço de atuação e pelos recursos de financiamento de pesquisa.

Abstract: Our goal is to analyse what we call academic field of food studies that is consisted of disciplines such as food engineering, nutrition, food technology, among others. We understand field as the place of disputes for recognition and legitimacy and that define the actions of its components. The analysed components are the professors-researchers who work at universities. Based in the centrality that scientific controversies about healthy food and food hazards have in contemporary society, we try to identify how those appear in the studied field. We discuss this topic from the perspective of the scientists and engineers of foods that work at the academy. This research can be considered a pioneer in the food sociology and in social studies of science and technology and, therefore, to some extent, exploratory. We approach the trajectory of the construction of the subjects of this field, as well as their differences in UFSC (Brazil) and ULG (Belgium). We conducted documentary research about the courses, their curricular program and the government policies of higher education; analysis of scholarly articles; semi-structured interviews, having as the common thread the definitions and meanings of what is considered healthy food and the implications of this segment in their research. We argue that the interface between the field of health and of food is a tension area in which the definition of what is considered healthy becomes an important argument in the fight for legitimacy, recognition and performance space. This tension can be noticed, for example, on the lack of consensus on the role of nutrition between these two fields, as although the nutritional knowledge is the basis for the claims about the health of foods, the nutritionist as a professional is not necessarily recognized as part of this field. The comparison of the academic field in Brazil and Belgium helped to identify the links between academia and other stakeholders in the scientific knowledge production process and the tensions involved in this process. Starting from the assumption that the field is not a static structure, but it depends on the negotiations between different sectors for their construction and maintenance, we identify the interfaces between the academia and the public policies of higher education and economic development that, in turn, influence the way the teachers work in the construction of knowledge and scientific innovations. In this context, the research funding has an important role and the way they are structured in two countries has influence in the professional habitus, creating in Brazil an individual competition and in Belgium a competition of "networks". We argue that this competition influenceshow respondents perceive their area, advocating a broader field format (traditional) or more specialized and diversified (revolutionary), according to the availability of resources and market. The traditional or revolutionary position reflects therefore not only a struggle for recognition, but also for the performance space and for the research funding resources.

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sociologia Política
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O setor conserveiro da região de Pelotas, no Sul do Rio Grande do Sul, surgiu em fins do século XIX e consolidou-se na década de 70 quando grandes empresas instalaram-se no local. Os anos 80 presenciaram o fechamento de muitas dessas fábricas em função da chamada #crise# que atingiu o setor. Em 90, as empresas que permaneceram, concentraram os faturamentos; das 40 indústrias que havia na década anterior, em 2007, apenas 12 atingiram um marco de produtividade sem precedentes no ramo, hoje, responsáveis por 98% da produção de compotas de pêssego do Brasil. Algumas dessas empresas reestruturaram-se, incrementaram seu parque produtivo e adotaram mudanças organizacionais, em um movimento semelhante ao verificado em diferentes ramos produtivos. Outras combinaram novos e velhos processos, marcas que caracterizam uma reestruturação heterogênea que articula, simultaneamente, passado e presente em movimento, um contexto no qual interagem instituições públicas e privadas interessadas no desenvolvimento regional. Na dimensão do mundo do trabalho, o fechamento das empresas representou um intenso desemprego na região de Pelotas, por terem sido a principal atividade econômica do local. A reestruturação empresarial fragilizou a posição de trabalhadores e sindicatos do ramo, e as formas coletivas de organização viram-se, assim, ainda mais restritas. Os sujeitos dessa trama narram de diferentes maneiras esses momentos, mas, invariavelmente, indicam uma intensificação na precariedade das suas condições e relações de trabalho, principalmente, no que se refere às formas de gestão empresarial. A postura dos trabalhadores nesse contexto parece ir muito além de uma condição de fatalidade. Na interface entre esfera fabril e extra-fabril, nas formas de sociabilidades que estabelecem entre si, suas vidas se inter-relacionam, e o espaço de trabalho passa a ser palco de diversas práticas de contestação. The sector of canned goods in the region of Pelotas, in Rio Grande do Sul, came to life at the end of the XIX Century and was consolidated in the 70#s when large companies installed themselves in the area. The 80#s witnessed the closing of many of these factories, due to the supposed #crisis# that hit this field of activity. In the 90#s, the firms which remained, concentrated their invoicing # of the 40 industries that had existed in the previous decade, only 12 reached the productivity level in 2007, without precedent in the field today, responsible for 98% of canned peach production in Brazil. Some of these companies restructured themselves, developed their productive industrial complex, and adopted organizational changes in a movement similar to that seen in different productive chains. Others combined new and old processes, marks that characterize a heterogeneous reorganization, which simultaneously articulates past and present in movement, a context in which public and private institutions, interested in regional development, interact. In the dimension of the working world, the closing of the companies represented intense unemployment in the region of Pelotas, since these firms had been the main economic activity of the region. The business reorganization weakened the position of the workers and labour unions in the field, and collective forms of organization found themselves even more restricted because of this. The players of this network describe these movements in different ways, but invariably indicate intensification in the weakness of their conditions and labour relations, principally in regard to the administration of the business. The attitude of the workers in this context seems to go way beyond a condition of fate. In the interface between industrial and extra-industrial, in the forms of sociability which are established among them, their lives interrelate and the working place becomes the stage of various contestation practices.

Orientador : Neide Lopes Patarra
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas
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Resumo: Não informado
Abstract: Not informed
Mestrado
Mestre em Sociologia

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Sociologia Política, Florianópolis, 2009
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O trabalho focaliza a gênese e as transformações operadas no segmento industrial têxtil-vestuarista na microrregião do Alto Vale do Rio Itajaí a partir do início dos anos 1990. Trata-se essencialmente de um exercício de avaliação dos principais impactos socioambientais gerados pela dinâmica recente deste segmento, buscando caracterizar e interpretar as limitações constitutivas do assim chamado #modelo catarinense de esenvolvimento#. A este diagnóstico foi incorporado um desenho exploratório de cenários prospectivos, visando estimular a pesquisa de estratégias alternativas de industrialização, à luz da teoria do desenvolvimento territorial sustentável. O projeto de tese foi inserido num programa franco-brasileiro de pesquisa interdisciplinar e interinstitucional sobre potencialidades e obstáculos ao desenvolvimento territorial sustentável no estado de Santa Catarina, contando com o apoio do Acordo CAPES-COFECUB e do CNPq. Inicialmente, com base numa síntese da revisão de literatura teórica e metodológica pertinente, a tese situa a gênese do segmento têxtil-vestuarista do Alto Vale do Itajaí num período de crise e de estagnação econômica do conjunto da região. Um vigoroso crescimento do segmento foi constatado a partir do início da década de 1990, com base na implantação de um conjunto de micro e pequenas empresas(MPEs) especializadas na confecção de artigos de malhas e jeans. Todavia, a dinamização produtiva e a ampliação significativa do mercado de trabalho têm sido realizadas com elevados custos socioambientais, que não foram ainda devidamente considerados pela opinião pública catarinense. As evidências coletadas indicam que nos espaços de planejamento e gestão das dinâmicas territoriais de industrialização predomina, ainda hoje, uma representação essencialmente economicista do fenômeno do desenvolvimento regional e urbano. A atividade têxtil-vestuarista, do ponto de vista socioambiental, se reflete no território a partir dos seus principais impactos: a ação das lavanderias e estamparias no que tange ao uso do recurso hídrico e ao uso do solo de forma desordenada; a migração dos jovens agricultores para as atividades urbanas (industriais) e a respectiva mudança nos hábitos e modos de vida em família; condições de trabalho degradantes; plantio de espécies exóticas nas propriedades rurais no lugar das culturas agrícolas. Além disso, a pesquisa revelou a fragilidade das relações de sinergia entre empresas e instituições (governamentais e não governamentais), uma carência crônica de mão-de-obra qualificada, pouco envolvimento de instituições de pesquisa & desenvolvimento e a persistência de assimetrias na relação do segmento com o parque industrial em funcionamento na região do Médio Vale do Itajaí. O cenário assim delineado configura a força de inércia de um arranjo produtivo que colide frontalmente com a necessidade de um redirecionamento estratégico do sistema de planejamento e gestão do desenvolvimento regional catarinense, face ao agravamento tendencial da crise planetária do meio ambiente. Em outras palavras, aquilo que predomina hoje em dia como um sistema supostamente virtuoso de governança territorial corresponde, na realidade, à reprodução de um projeto de modernização conservadora e predatória, com perfil hierárquico-corporativo, dominada pelo lobby das empresas de grande porte que colocam em segundo plano o cultivo de uma relação de uso ecologicamente prudente e socialmente includente do patrimônio natural e cultural do povo catarinense. Finalmente, o ensaio de prospectiva territorial indicou as condições de viabilidade de um sistema alternativo - integrado e participativo - de planejamento e gestão do desenvolvimento no longo prazo. Pois avalia a existência de instituições e iniciativas locais que poderiam aprimorar a relação economia e meio ambiente. Também se destacam as iniciativas locais de incentivo à integração do setor e de articulação do mesmo com os problemas locais. Embora sejam iniciativas informais reafirmam a potencialidade de viabilização de um sistema alternativo de planejamento e gestão desta atividade produtiva e do território respectivamente.
This dissertation is focused on the genesis and the changes in the textile-clothing industries of the Alto Vale do Itajaí micro-region from the early 1990s. This is essentially an exercise to evaluate the main social impacts generated by the recent dynamic of this segment, trying to characterize and interpret the constituted constraints of the "Santa Catarina model of development." To this diagnosis has been incorporated a exploration of prospective scenarios to stimulate the search for alternative strategies of industrialization, in the light of the theory of sustainable territoria development. The thesis project was inserted in a Franco-Brazilian interdisciplinary and interinstitutional research on potentials and barriers to sustainable regional development in the state of Santa Catarina, with the support of the CAPES-COFECUB agreement and CNPq. Initially, based on a summary review of relevant theoretical and methodological literature, this dissertation locates the genesis of the textile-clothing segment of the Alto Vale do Itajaí in a period of crisis and economic stagnation of the whole region. A vigorous growth of the segment was found from the beginning of the 1990s, based on the deployment of a set of micro and small enterprises specializing in the manufacture of cloth and jeans. However, production dynamization and significant expansion of the labor market have been carried out with high social and environmental costs, which have not been adequately addressed by Santa Catarina's public opinion. The collected evidences indicate that in areas of planning and management of territorial dynamics of industrialization prevails, even today, a representation of the economic phenomenon of the urban and regional development. The textile-clothing activity, from the social and environmental point of view, is reflected in the territory from its main impacts: the effect of laundry and prints with respect to the use of water and soil resources in a disorderly way; the migration of young farmers to urban activities (industry) and their change in habits and lifestyles in family; degrading working conditions; planting of exotic species on farms instead of conventional agriculture. Furthermore, research has revealed the fragility of synergy relations between companies and institutions (governmental and nongovernmental), a chronic shortage of labor-skilled, low involvement of institutions for research & development and persistence of asymmetry in the relationship of the segment with the industrial park of the Médio Vale do Itajaí. This scenario set out the force of inertia of a productive arrangement that clashes with the needs for a strategic redirection of the planning and management system of Santa Catarina's regional development, given the worsening trend of the global environmental crisis. In other words, what predominates today as a supposedly virtuous system of territorial governance is, in fact, the reproduction of a project of conservative and predatory modernization, with hierarchical and corporative profile, dominated by the big companies lobbying that put in the background the use environmentally prudent and socially inclusive of the natural and cultural heritage of the people of Santa Catarina. Finally, the experiment of territorial prospective has indicated feasible conditions of an alternative system - integrated and participatory - of planning and management development in the long term. Therefore ssesses the existence of institutions and local initiatives that could improve the relationship between economy and environment. It can also be highlighted the local initiatives to encourage sector integration and its coordination with the local problems. Although informal initiatives, they reaffirm the potential viability of an alternative planning and management system of productive activity and its area respectively.

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sociologia Política
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O trabalho expõe os resultados de uma pesquisa sobre os impactos da reestruturação produtiva iniciada em meados dos anos 1980, com recrudescimento nos anos 1990, sobre as condições vividas pelos trabalhadores metalúrgicos no ramo automotivo, especialmente da General Motors, em S. José dos Campos-SP. No âmbito da flexibilização da produção, estratégia globalizada no ramo automotivo, verifica-se a hipótese de precarização do trabalho e da vida dos trabalhadores do setor, e a resultante vulnerabilidade social destes, em meio a um cenário de grande desenvolvimento econômico de S. José dos Campos-SP. Procura a investigação se acercar do sentido daquela precarização, e assim, estabelecer os nexos entre a vulnerabilidade social dos metalúrgicos e as grandes transformações na base técnica da montadora, carro-chefe da produção industrial na região do Vale do Paraíba. A reestruturação produtiva implicou em flexibilização das relações de trabalho, com maior evidencia na terceirização de mais de um terço de sua força de trabalho. Também as relações sociais mais amplas dos metalúrgicos foram flexibilizadas, como atestam o aumento significativo do fluxo migratório intra-regional, as dificuldades de fixação no espaço urbano decorrentes do empobrecimento dos trabalhadores, o intermitente deslocamento intersetorial dos metalúrgicos demitidos ou sub-contratados e a desestruturação familiar do metalúrgico, entre outras ocorrências. Tais dinamismos de flexibilização conjugaram-se para diluir formas de sociabilidade construídas ao longo dos anos com repercussão sobre a identidade metalúrgica dos trabalhadores do setor automotivo. Neste contexto, a investigação empalmou com novas formas de luta e organização social que, em sinergia com a referência classista do Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos, redimensionou e redefiniu as estratégias adotadas de resistência. Agora mais amplas e fundadas em lutas urbanas, como por exemplo, contra o desemprego e pela moradia. Esse processo significou para os trabalhadores da GM - entre terceirizados, desempregados e os trabalhadores com carteira assinada - uma nova mediação entre a sua condição de vítimas do processo de flexibilização e a sua condição de sujeitos sociais com capacidade de criar alternativas, em última instancia, aos desígnios do capital.

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sociologia Política.
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Esta tese tem como tema principal as transformações da produção e do consumo de cosméticos na alta modernidade. A análise está centrada nos processos de reforma ambiental da indústria cosmética e do surgimento de um consumidor reflexivo, no contexto de políticas e discursos em torno da conservação da biodiversidade no Brasil. Particularmente, presta atenção nos processos de reforma ambiental implementados por Natura e O Boticário, as duas maiores empresas nacionais no setor cosmético. Discute-se em que medida estes processos podem ser entendidos a partir das premissas da teoria da modernização ecológica. Algumas das questões formuladas desde tal enfoque são: Qual a importância da reforma ambiental para a indústria cosmética e o setor empresarial brasileiro? Qual a pertinência do conceito de sociedade biocosmética como demarcador de um novo padrão de consumo de cosméticos? Como caracterizar os consumidores de cosméticos focalizados pelas duas empresas estudadas? Será que são consumidores mais reflexivos porque se orientam pela procura de beleza, saúde, bem-estar e segurança, ou porque, além desses elementos, orientam suas escolhas a partir de uma ética ambiental e um interesse pela conservação do meio ambiente? Como se relacionam estes valores com o processo de individuação e a relevância do corpo apontada por diversos teóricos sociais como parte da alta-modernidade? E finalmente, como interpretar as inter-relações entre novas formas produtivas e novos produtos cosméticos e novos estilos de vida? Os capítulos desta tese tratam estas questões, visando entender as transformações recentes na indústria cosmética brasileira. Um de nossos argumentos centrais é que não se trata de mudanças meramente "cosméticas", mas de transformações mais profundas, que paradoxalmente estão tomando conta do setor dedicado às aparências. Os resultados de nosso trabalho mostram interessantes mediações entre os processos de construção da imagem de marca, a consolidação de uma cultura empresarial compromissada no movimento de responsabilidade social das empresas e a disseminação do hábito cosmético como parte fundamental na definição de novos contextos de interação social.

Orientador: Ricardo Antunes
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas
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Resumo: Não informado.
Abstract: Not informed.
Mestrado

Tese (livre-docência) - Universidade Estadual de CAmpinas, Faculdade de educação
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Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho foi procurar compreender como, concretamente, a difusão da informatização e as mudanças na organização do trabalho se integram com as relações de gênero, expressando e atuando na complexa e contraditória trama de relações sociais presentes tanto na divisão técnica como na divisão sexual do trabalho. Para tanto privilegiou a análise comparativa das qualificações requeridas em diferentes formas de inserção da mulher no trabalho - trabalho em tempo parcial e em tempo integral - em um segmento do setor de serviços da economia, denominado "serviços produtivos". Trata-se especificamente do sistema financeiro, em São Paulo, considerado maior mercado financeiro da América Latina. Neste contexto os dados foram coletados em um banco estatal de grande porte. A expansão do setor terciário da economia bem como a feminização do trabalho nesse setor, significam características presentes no processo de reestruturação capitalista em curso; por esta razão, são percebidas como sendo relevantes perspectivas de análise que contribuem para a melhor compreensão destas mudanças
Abstract: The underlying aim of this work has been to achieve a concrete understanding of the integration of gender relations with the spread of computerization and changes in the organization of work, and the ways in which these factors are expressed in and act on the complex network of social relationships involved in both the technical and sexual division of labour. Emphasis is laid on comparative analysis of the qualifications required for the different ways in which women do their jobs - that is, fill time or part time - in one segment of the service sector of the economy, that of "productive services". The specific area is that of the financial system in the city of São Paulo, considered to be Latin America's largest financial market. Within this context, the data have been collected in a large State bank. Expansion of the tertiary sector of the economy and feminization of work in this sector are meaningful characteristics in the ongoing capitalist restructuring of the economy; for this reason, they are regarded as relevant perspectives of analysis which have a contribution to make to better understanding of change
Tese (livre-docencia) - Univer
Livre-Docente em Educação

SOUSA, Nelydélia Kelene França de. Trabalhador ou bandido? A construção e o conflito de identidades na penitenciária industrial regional de Sobral, Ceará. 2008. 126 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Sociologia) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Ciências Sociais, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sociologia, Fortaleza-CE, 2008.
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The survey, conducted between the years 2006 and 2007, aims to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of social formation within the existing prisons. The aim of this study is to interpret the process of constructing the identities of prisoners in the prison inmates in the Prison Industrial Regional Sobral (PIRS). This institution, located in the north of the state of Ceara, is part of the prison system outsourced Ceará, managed in partnership by government and by private enterprise: the National Company of Prison Administration (CONAP). The entry of a person in the prison system is described as a rite of passage that will start in the codes and rules specific to the prison society which has belonged. On entering the PIRS, the newly arrested – now will be observed by doctors, psychologists, social workers, lawyers and security guards responsible for giving it a valid identity for the company. The identities assigned to prisoners during the ritual of entry on PIRS are not definitive. The key criterion for the is a constructed identity of the prisoner within that prison society is the participation work in prison. The prison work that produces two groups main identity: the workers and bandits. The relationship between the prisoners belonging to these groups are marked by conflicts expressed in words of namecalling and depreciation, and also by direct physical attacks. In prison, the individual must quickly learn the rules of domestic society and play the role in assigned by their identity prison since it depends largely on its survival in jail.
Essa pesquisa, realizada entre os anos de 2006 e 2007, pretende contribuir para a compreensão da dinâmica da formação social existente no interior das prisões. O objetivo desse estudo é interpretar o processo de construção das identidades carcerárias dos presos reclusos na Penitenciária Industrial Regional de Sobral (PIRS). Essa instituição, localizada na Região Norte do Estado do Ceará, faz parte do sistema prisional terceirizado cearense, administrado, em parceria, pelo Estado e por empresa privada: a Companhia Nacional de Administração Prisional (Conap). O ingresso de um indivíduo no sistema prisional é descrito como um ritual de passagem que o iniciará nos códigos e nas regras específicas da sociedade carcerária a qual passa a pertencer. Ao entrar na PIRS, o preso recém – chegado será observado por médicos, psicólogos, assistentes sociais, advogados e seguranças responsáveis por atribuir-lhe uma identidade válida para essa sociedade. As identidades atribuídas aos presos durante o ritual de entrada na PIRS não são definitivas. O critério fundamental para que seja construída uma identidade para o detento dentro dessa sociedade carcerária é a participação nos trabalhos penitenciários. O labor nessa penitenciária origina dois grupos identitários principais: os trabalhadores e os bandidos. As relações estabelecidas entre os presos pertencentes a esses grupos são marcadas por conflitos expressos em palavras de xingamento e depreciação, e também por agressões físicas diretas. Na prisão, o indivíduo necessita aprender rapidamente as regras da sociedade intramuro e a representar o papel que lhe é atribuído pela sua identidade carcerária uma vez que disso depende em grande parte a sua sobrevivência na cadeia.

This thesis focuses on the labour process within the minibus taxi industry in East London, South Africa. This industry is structurally situated within the informal sector or economy but is marked by contradictory processes of formalisation and in-formalisation. Though the taxi industry seems to straddle the formal and informal economies in South Africa, the study is conceptually framed in terms of the informal sector but in a critically-engaged fashion. The very distinction between formal and informal economies, whether in South Africa or elsewhere, is open to dispute; and, even if accepted, there are differing conceptualisations of the relationship between the ‘two’ economies. Also, the conceptual clarity of the term ‘informal economy’ has been subject to scrutiny, given the vast range of activities it is said to incorporate. While the distinction between formal and informal economies may be a useful conceptual starting-point, this thesis demonstrates that it is analytically useful to speak of degrees and forms of formalisation and in-formalisation along a continuum, rather than to dichotomize economies. The thesis therefore analyses in depth the competing and tension-riddled processes of formalisation and in-formalisation in the minibus taxi industry, and with a specific focus on the labour process.

Defence date: 6 March 2000
Examining board: Prof. Colin Crouch (EUI - Co-supervisor) ; Prof. Klaus Eder (EUI - Supervisor) ; Prof. Marteen A. Hajer (University of Amsterdam) ; Prof. Rudolf Lewanski (Università di Bologna)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

From a review of sociological theory, and the main features of the South African labour environment, the enquiry was designed to identify pressures for change amongst South African industrial workers. Research involved 554 workers in five industrial situations, ranging from that peripheral to 'black homeland' areas to that of settled urban workers in metropolitan Durban, and 43 managers and supervisors. Factor analysis of data revealed three themes (the 'social dynamics' ) in terms of which workers responded consistently. The first was the causative integration dynamic, the second the responsive dynamic of orientation to change. The interaction of these dynamics defines the nature of internal labour relations. Successful management of these dynamics demanded effective conmunication and involvement. The third theme was identified as the adherence dynamic, representing extrinsic pressures or responsibilities compelling workers to find employment, and inhibiting or regulating their freedom of egress. The external environment is beyond the control of management, and is influenced by both government policy and general economic conditions. Conclusions are that historic restrictions on labour mobility and residence in South Africa have contributed significantly to conditions hindering achievement of South Africa's full growth potential. Growth impediment arises from accumulation of workers in work situations not of their choice, from which they cannot easily escape, and in which they become increasingly uncommitted and alienated. This contributes to gradual development of potential conflict which, considered generally assumes the character of that based on social divisions of class and race. However it also explains, through the example of South African industry, how it is possible for societies to function over long periods of time when significant levels of internal conflict and opposition remain within the bounds of equilibrium. Capitalism in South Africa is seen in the context of an interdependent spiral of gradual economic decline and rising political discontent. Essential steps in its reversal would include removal of all restrictions on personal freedom of movement, and urgent integrative management strategies. South African industry is compared with American and Japanese industry in the social dynamics context. The study draws independent support from, and lends support to theory evolved in United States industry from work done particularly by Hirschman (Hirschman, A.O., 1970), and Sayles (Sayles, L.R., 1958).
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1986.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2016.
Environmental income in rural socio-ecological systems consists of the monetary and non-monetary value derived by people from non-agricultural ecosystem goods and services that are sourced from wild or uncultivated natural systems. This environmental income forms an important part of rural households' diversified livelihood income portfolios and includes resources like fuelwood, herbs, fruits, game, medicinal plants and other materials that are used for clothing, shelter, arts and crafts. Rural households also depend on income from two other land-based income streams, crop farming and livestock husbandry, and off-farm activities income stream, which includes grants and wages, for both consumption and cash generation. While rural livelihoods are becoming increasingly reliant on off-farm income, land-based livelihood income streams (including environmental income) still play an important supplementary role, especially to satisfy subsistence needs. Past studies in the developing world have quantified livelihood incomes and have often associated these income values to the socio-economic characteristics of households. However, neither do these studies examine the different livelihood income streams collectively as a portfolio, nor do they sufficiently account for and create understanding around the correlations within the suites of influencing factors. Livelihoods are often analysed using frameworks that are used to understand households' livelihood income portfolios, especially their environmental income dependencies, in relation to influencing factors. These frameworks can be useful tools to gain a quantitative understanding of households’ livelihood income portfolios. This study aimed to quantify and understand the contribution of environmental income to rural households as part of their diversified livelihood portfolios and relate these livelihood portfolios to household socio-economic characteristics and adopted livelihood strategies using the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) framework. Interviews were conducted during 2010 in 590 households spread across nine villages in the Bushbuckridge region, Mpumalanga, South Africa. The interviews focussed on the quantification of four livelihood income streams — environmental, livestock, crops and off-farm. These income streams were assessed at three points of assessment (POAs) in the livelihood income chain — the initial, primary income value into the household, the value used for household consumption, and the amount of cash generated. Livelihood incomes were analysed using summary statistics, frequency distributions and ordinations. These were used to gauge the value of these incomes to individual households as well as to the system as a whole, in both absolute terms and relative to each other. Ordinations were then used to explore the relationships between variables within the suite of household socio-economic characteristics and within the suite of adopted household livelihood strategies, and finally incorporating both. Lastly, the proportional environmental income dependencies of households were explored using global fractional logit generalised linear models (GLMs). The models first included the socio-economic characteristics as explanatory variables, and then the adopted livelihood strategies. Almost all households used the environmental, crop and off-farm income streams for primary income and consumption, with the primary income from off-farm activities being in the form of cash generation. In contrast, less than 12% of households were involved in the primary collection and consumption of livestock income. In general, fewer households were involved in the cash generation from the land-based livelihood income streams. However, these sellers represented a larger fraction of users for the livestock income stream then when compared to the other two land-based income streams. While livestock income was used less frequently than the other two land-based income streams, it was comparatively as valuable as the off-farm income stream to its users. Overall, absolute changes in the correlated land-based income streams were not related to the off-farm income streams. Relative variation in livestock primary income was related to the relative variation in primary income values from off-farm activities. Relative variation in the crops and environmental cash generation was related to corresponding cash generation values from off-farm activities. Whether the livelihood incomes were examined for primary income, consumption or cash generation, the worth of the different livelihoods were valued differently to the socio-ecological system as a whole compared to their value to households that were involved in those activities, and their value to individuals within households. The collective variations at all POAs of the land-based strategies were associated with different sets of household socio-economic characteristics and adopted livelihood strategies, compared to the sets that were associated with the off-farm livelihood income stream. Factors that were associated with an income stream at one POA did not necessarily have the same association at the other POAs. The choice of adopted livelihood strategies reduces the need to understand and account for all factors that influences the translation of different types of capital, which includes household socio-economic characteristics, into livelihood incomes. This simplified connection is crucial to standardising and creating models that can be put into practice at all POAs within the livelihood chain in these socio-ecological systems. Furthermore, proportional environmental income dependencies can be useful for evaluating how the worth of environmental income is related quantitatively to influencing factors. However, many of the dynamics between influencing factors and the income streams that contribute to environmental income stream are not captured. The methodological approach used in this study in analysing the livelihoods of households in the Bushbuckridge region provides a standardised framework of analysis. The quantification of the livelihood data in common monetary units at the three different POAs of primary income, household consumption and cash generation, allows the analysis to be expanded to different platforms of understanding. The collective understanding of the variation between the different income streams can be expanded to understand the worth of these income streams to households and individuals within these households, as well as to understand the worth of these income streams to the socio-ecological system as a whole. When combining the collective understanding of the income portfolios at the different POAs with a collective understanding of the suite of household socio-economic characteristics or with a collective understanding of the suite of adopted livelihood strategies, a platform for understanding the dynamics within livelihoods is created. This has potential for creating workable predictive models of environmental income dependency in these systems, especially using the adopted livelihood strategies. The results of this dissertation also raise caution that analyses of these socio-ecological systems needs to be interpreted at all POAs simultaneously with the collective understanding of the links between incomes and socio-economic characteristics, and with the links between incomes and adopted livelihood strategies. There is more value during strategic planning in asking how to encourage a set of adopted livelihood strategies that are associated with the desired dependencies than asking which socio-economic household factors are likely to result in said dependencies. Policy intervention in the area that is aimed at increasing households' dependence on land-based activities needs to differentiate whether it will be encouraging the subsistence sourcing and consumption of resources, or will it encourage the cash generation from these income streams. Particular attention needs to be paid as to which households will be addressed. It will be wiser to implement some interventions across all households and rather focus other interventions on a few more involved households.
LG2017

D.Litt. et Phil. (Social Work)
From the onset of his involvement with social work practice in industry, candidate found himself reflecting upon the position and resulting characteristic functions of social work practitioners within an industrial context. The search for clarity in this regard led to the perusal of reading matter and the consideration of past experiences and encounters. This culminated in a desire to investigate the positioning of industrial social work in order to effect a compromise between the promotion of the objectives of industry viz. financial gain and human resource development. The main research issue or problem of the study, therefore centres around the positioning of industrial social work, and consequently the title of this dissertation is "The positioning of social work in the labour milieu". The purpose of this study is the placement of industrial social work within the context of meaningful work, work environment, influences from within industrial enterprises on man as worker, human resource activities in industrial enterprises, the course of industrial social work in industrial enterprises, the embodiment of social work in industrial enterprises and the provision of guidelines for social workers to position their profession most effectively in industrial enterprises. The study is exploratory-descriptive in nature, since the domain of study (industrial social work) is still being regarded as fairly unfamiliar and relatively less researched as compared to other branches of generic social work. Methodologically viewed, the study, the outcome of which is documented in this dissertation, was undertaken by marshalling practice experience into expertise mainly by interacting it with an eclectic literature study, a conceptual analysis of certain concepts and constructs central to the management of industrial social work, and systematising impressionistic wisdom while collecting information and gaining insight. In addition to the study of literature, information was collected by studying official documents of various industrial enterprises, consultations with various colleagues and attending seminars, courses and workshops, whilst regular consultations with my promotor took place and in the process progressing from an argumentative phase to guidelines for practice. In the study the following main conclusions were drawn: Although only partially, man's work and his work environment offer opportunities and challenges in reply to his quest for a meaningful life. An industrial enterprise co-ordinates the occupational activities of people rendering certain goods and services at specific venues. People, material, machines, means, markets and management, are utilised in the work environment as resources for the production of goods and the rendering of services to industry, its employers and the community. Man as employee is subject to influences from within industrial organisations but also reflects certain distinct characteristics. Organisationally, industrial social work is a manpower managment function, whilst industrial social services usually form part of the enterprise's manpower department. Industrial social work ensures from the corporate social responsibility of industrial enterprises. This responsibility is external (concerning the community in general) and internal (concerning employees and their families). The latter enables employees to contribute optimally to the production process and the realisation of business objectives and in compliance with their individual abilities and potential, to develop in human beings with a commitment to work. The establishing of an industrial social service usually develops from a micro to a macro level, from a peripheric to an integrated component of the enterprise. A typology of composite industrial social work models illustrates this statement in the dissertation. The general aim of industrial social work is to contribute to the realisation of corporate objectives by rendering professional services to employees. The components of the strategic planning of industrial social work are similar to those of any management planning. The study is concluded with guidelines for the positioning of industrial social work in industrial enterprises.

Pricing practices of firms are an important yet little studied aspect of the price phenomenon in sociology. This study asks the question: Why do different firms, even in the same market, tend to use different pricing practices--value-informed, competition-informed, or cost-informed pricing--to set prices? To answer this question, this study builds a dynamic flocking model of pricing to investigate the inter-dynamics among pricing practices and various market uncertainties. The model shows that each pricing practice is only viable under certain combinations of levels of different market uncertainties. Supporting evidence, theoretical innovations, and practical implications of the model are discussed. Contrary to common intuition, uncertainty, conceptualized as some cognitive tolerance interval, is akin to lubricant, making the otherwise rigid, brittle, and friction-fraught system more smooth, robust, and error-tolerant under certain circumstances. Therefore, uncertainties, and the inter-dynamics among them, should be treated as an endogenous and integral part of the social mechanism at issue, rather than some amorphous “other” external to it.

Work is an essential activity that provides goods or services of value to oneself and others. Paradoxically, in a bid for self-realisation, workers are seriously endangered. Work-related or induced diseases and stresses pose serious threats to workers’ health and the general well-being, hence, the need to seriously consider the issue of occupational health and safety of workers. In terms of safety at work, the experience of small and medium scale enterprises (SMSEs) worldwide is that of neglect. Their incomes are very low and uncertain, coupled with high levels of risk and hazard in their work, with little or no social protection coverage (Chen, 2008). This study therefore examines how environmental and sociological factors determine occupational health and safety of workers in SMSEs in Lagos State, Nigeria. Ulrich Beck “Risk Society” theory, Political Economy of Health framework (PEH) (Minkler et al 1994, Linnan et al, 2001) and Labour Process Theory (LPT) (Braverman, 1974; Marx, 1976; Bottome, 1991) underpinned the study. The study adopts both the qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. The qualitative method includes field observation of the selected workplaces, six Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and eight In-depth interviews (IDIs). The quantitative involved the use of structured questionnaire. The sample survey involved 180 respondents in a multi-stage sampling technique from purposively selected sawmills, mechanic villages and blacksmith cottages in three Local Government Areas in Lagos State. The quantitative data analysis uses simple percentile and univariate analyses, while the qualitative data are content-analysed, based on the objectives of the study. The findings identified low level of education (60.5%), and poor awareness of OHS in SMSEs (86.1%). It further reveals poor physical (69.5%) and technological environment (70.5%), unavailability of OHS facilities (60.5%) and prevention methods by manager/owners (60.5%), carefree attitudes of workers/managers/owners to OHS (69.5), non-acquaintance of workers to OHS laws (86.1%), workers’ economic incapacitation to deal with issues of occupational hazard (76.1%), lack of enforcement of OHS (88.3%), and transferring knowledge on OHS (82.2%) in the selected SMSEs. The study recommends roles for managers/owners, workers, trade associations, government, non-governmental organisations to promote effective OHS in the selected SMSEs.
Sociology
D.Phil. (Sociology)

The rise of on-demand platform work typified by Uber has intensified a decades-long trend away from standard work relationships and toward contingent work structures, characterized by the unbounding of work in space and time. Yet many workers have always toiled outside of a traditional workplace and “standard” schedule. My dissertation examines how contingent workers in four different industries navigate unstable work schedules across unsettled work geographies, drawing on 120 interviews with agricultural and oil and gas workers in Texas and on-demand delivery workers and university adjuncts in New York City. Across these “old” and “new” cases of contingent work performed across rural and urban landscapes, work processes restructure space and time in such a way that workers do not know when, for how long, or where they will have work. I call this temporal and spatial instability positional uncertainty – repurposing an oilfield term for the inability to pinpoint precisely where one is at any given moment in the drilling process. The experience of positional uncertainty forces workers to subordinate the rhythms and geographies of their own lives to the temporal and spatial imperatives of their respective labor processes, leading to time struggle (unpaid periods of waiting or “zombie time” and overwork) and challenges in space (related to the bifurcation or unbounding, respectively, of the spaces of work and home). Workers respond, first, by doing boundary work, and second, by telling both critical and anchoring stories in attempts to bring coherence and meaning to the day-to-day and the long-term. The dissertation highlights the integral role of time and space in structuring social life, the active maneuvers by which workers struggle to re-configure time and space to produce coherence and make a life for themselves, and the short- and long-term costs of the transfer of risk onto workers through positional uncertainty. The strategic comparison reveals parallel strategies across disparate cases in response to the warping of time and space and illuminates how positional uncertainty exacerbates deep-set structural inequalities.