Privatização, desestruturação organizacional e da força de trabalho: o caso de uma empresa de energia

Este trabalho tem como objetivo caracterizar o processo de privatização, como parte do projeto da reestruturação produtiva e de reforma do Estado, no contexto da crise do setor energético brasileiro nos anos 90. Para isto, é tomado, como caso exemplar, uma empresa do setor elétrico, para investigação das implicações ocorridas para a organização e para os seus trabalhadores. Entende-se aqui que a reforma do setor elétrico é parte integrante de mudanças mais amplas, remetidas à reforma do Estado, a qual adotou como ideologia as políticas neoliberais a partir dos anos 1990 no Brasil. É neste contexto que entendemos a privatização das empresas de utilidade pública no Programa Nacional de Desestatização (PND). Tomamos para o estudo de caso uma empresa do setor elétrico, tendo em vista que a energia representa um insumo essencial para o desenvolvimento de um país. Foi a partir também do desenvolvimento das formas de energia que ocorreram as revoluções industriais e, com isso, o desenvolvimento do capitalismo industrial. Além de revisão teórica e bibliográfica, o estudo contou com pesquisa documental dos relatórios anuais, do planejamento estratégico e da pesquisa de clima organizacional realizados pela empresa investigada. Contribuiu, para a análise, ainda, o processo de observação da autora como participante do cotidiano organizacional, na medida em que é trabalhadora e assistente social da empresa. A pesquisa revela que o período de sete anos em que a empresa permaneceu incluída no PND, acarretou a sua des/reestruturação tanto para a identidade empresarial da empresa quanto para os seus recursos humanos. Diante, da reestruturação, a empresa elaborou seu Planejamento Estratégico, buscando, segundo os padrões empresariais vigentes, ser referência mundial, ter excelência empresarial e rentabilidade. Ao mesmo tempo, estabeleceu abstratamente a valorização das pessoas, a transparência, a ética e a responsabilidade sócio-ambiental. Porém, ao analisar o seu Planejamento Estratégico e a pesquisa de Clima Organizacional, constatamos as contradições existentes na empresa. Entre as contradições, verificamos ser a gestão de recursos humanos, o principal desafio a ser superado nesse processo de reestruturação.

Éthéréalisation : amorces d'une contre-histoire

Cette thèse est une enquête épistémologique qui s’interroge sur la persistance de « l’éther » dans le champ de la technologie. De façon générale, le mot « éther » évoque un modèle conceptuel de la physique pré-einsteinienne, celui d’un milieu invisible permettant la propagation de la lumière et des ondes électromagnétiques. Or, ce n’est là qu’une des figures de l’éther. Dans plusieurs mythologies et cosmogonies anciennes, le nom « éther » désignait le feu originel contenu dans les plus hautes régions célestes. Aristote nommait « éther », par exemple, le « cinquième être », ou « cinquième élément ». La chimie a aussi sa propre figure de l’éther où il donne son nom à un composé chimique, le C4H10O, qui a été utilisé comme premier anesthésiant général à la fin du XIXe siècle. L’apparition soutenue dans l’histoire de ces figures disparates de l’éther, qui a priori ne semblent pas entretenir de relation entre elles, est pour nous la marque de la persistance de l’éther. Nous défendons ici l’argument selon lequel cette persistance ne se résume pas à la constance de l’attribution d’un mot ou d’un nom à différents phénomènes dans l’histoire, mais à l’actualisation d’une même signature, éthérogène. À l’invitation d’Agamben et en nous inspirant des travaux de Nietzsche et Foucault sur l’histoire-généalogie et ceux de Derrida sur la déconstruction, notre thèse amorce une enquête historique motivée par un approfondissement d’une telle théorisation de la signature. Pour y parvenir, nous proposons de placer l’éther, ou plutôt la signature-éther, au cœur de différentes enquêtes historiques préoccupées par le problème de la technologie. En abordant sous cet angle des enjeux disparates – la légitimation des savoirs narratifs, la suspension des sens, la pseudoscience et la magie, les révolutions de l’information, l’obsession pour le sans-fil, l’économie du corps, la virtualisation de la communication, etc. –, nous proposons dans cette thèse autant d’amorces pour une histoire autre, une contre-histoire.

A imprensa e a farmácia : publicidade e medicamentos no século XIX

A influência da Publicidade na sociedade do século XIX foi notória. Utilizando a Imprensa como veículo de eleição, a Publicidade disseminou ideias, cultura, hábitos, elegância e bom gosto. Mas mais importante do que isso, a Publicidade gerou mercados, aumentou a demanda, intensificou a produção e reduziu preços. O desenvolvimento tecnológico adveio da Revolução Industrial permitiu tornar as técnicas publicitárias mais atractivas ao observador e futuro consumidor. A utilização de figuras, inicialmente a preto e branco e posteriormente a cores, foi um excelente exemplo disso. Os anúncios publicitários a medicamentos, alguns deles de fórmula secreta, foram uma prática comum no século XIX. E dessa forma, seduzidos pelo sucesso que esses anúncios tinham na população, os charlatães rapidamente tomaram consciência de que podiam lucrar bastante com as suas fórmulas “milagrosas”. O sector farmacêutico viu, de forma indirecta, a Publicidade transformar o sector, visto que foi através da industrialização da produção dos remédios secretos que se obteve as especialidades farmacêuticas.

Estado capaz (desenvolvimentista) e democracia em países pré-industriais

This paper distinguishes three types of countries (rich, middle-income, and pre-industrial) and discusses the problems of state capability and the quality of democracy in the later, which include the poor countries. A consolidate democracy supposes that the country has realized its capitalist revolution and counts with a relatively capable state. The challenge of pre-industrial countries is to build their nation and a reasonably capable state, and to make their national and industrial revolution. The democratic state will be its main instrument to achieve the five political objectives that modern societies defined historically: security, individual liberty, economic well-being, social justice, and protection of the environment. Given the demand of the people and the pressure of rich countries since the 1980s, this state will have to be democratic, but, historically, all industrial revolutions were the outcome of a developmental strategy, and none of them were accomplished in the realm of democracy. This is the main contradiction and the main challenge faced by populist leaders who try to develop their countries, having as adversaries the local liberal oligarchy and the rich countries or the West. They must build a capable state, but their poorly organized societies do not help. They must give priority to economic growth, but the people ask for more social services. Thus, to govern these countries is extremely difficult.

Finance past, finance future: a brief exploration of the evolution of financial practices

As we work our way through the latest financial crisis, politicians seem both powerless to act convincingly and unable to craft from the welter of diverse and antagonistic narratives a coherent and convincing vision of the future. In this article, we argue that a temporal lens brings clarity to such confusion, and that thinking in terms of time and reflecting on privileged temporal structures helps to highlight underlying assumptions and distinguish different narratives from one another. We begin by articulating our understanding of temporality, and we proceed to apply this to the evolution of financial practice during different historical epochs as recently delineated by Gordon (2012). We argue that the principles of finance were effectively in place by the eighteenth century and that consequent developments are best conceptualized as phases in which one particular aspect is intensified. We find that in different historical periods, the temporal intensification associated with specific models of finance shifts, over history, from the past to the present to the future. We argue that a quite idiosyncratic understanding of the future has been intensified in the present phase, what we refer to as proximal future, and we explain how this has come to be. We then consider the ethical consequences of privileging an intensification of proximal future before mapping an alternative model centred on intensifying distal future, highlighting early signs of its potential emergence in the shadows of our present.

Post-industrial Intervention : An Activity-Theoretical Expedition Tracing the Proximal Development of Forms of Conducting Interventions

Ei saatavilla

Graphene-driven revolutions in ICT and beyond

This session described the FET Flagship Pilot on graphene and related two-dimensional materials. The flagship targets a revolution in information and communication technology, with impacts reaching into other areas of the society. The session featured four talks on the scientific and technological potential and open research challenges within the scope of the proposed flagship, industrial view on possibilities and challenges posed by graphene and related materials, and presentation on the implementation and structure of the flagship pilot. © Selection and peer-review under responsibility of FET11 conference organizers and published by Elsevier B.V.

Democracy and growth in pre-industrial countries

This paper distinguishes three types of countries (rich, middle-income, and pre-industrial) and focus on the latter, which, in contrast to the other two, didn’t complete their industrial and capitalist revolutions. Can pre-industrial countries be governed well and embody the principles of consolidated democracies? Today these countries are under pressure from the imperial West to eschew institutions and developmental strategies that, in the past, allowed rich and middle-income countries to industrialize. At the same time, they are pressured by these same Western parties (and by its own people) to be democratic, even though their societies are not mature enough to fulfill that. In fact, no country completed its industrial and capitalist revolution within the framework of even a minimal democracy, suggesting that such demands are unfair. Added to this, pre-industrial countries are extremely difficult to govern because they usually don’t have a strong nation and capable states. This double pressure to renounce development strategies that have worked for the West while being required to become a democracy represents a major obstacle to their development.

Americanismo e fordismo nos boletins da comissão brasileiro-americana de educação industrial

This text thematizes the performance of the Brazilian-American Commission of Industrial Education (CBAI) since its installation at Rio de Janeiro, on 1947, and extinction in Curitiba, on 1963. The general goal consists in identifying if are there any relation between Gramsci’s Americanism and Fordism elements and the CBAI’s performance, by means of a speech analysis from de Newsletter of CBAI and other documental sources related to the organizations performance. The specifics objectives intend to contextualize the political and economic situation that Brazil was going through before and concomitant to CBAI’s performance, emphasizing some aspects of the Cold War feature that contributed to narrow the relations between United States and other countries of Latin America, especially Brazil. On the following, it intends to present the main aspects of Gramsci’s thought and the Americanism and fordism and Passive Revolution as key categories for a better understanding of the presence of an Americanization project on Brazilian’s professional education. As so, the object of this study are the Newsletters of CBAI. Finally, the speech’s analisys of the Newsletter was the methodology used to demonstrate CBAI as an Americanism diffuser. The documental research and sources served as groundwork, especially the Newsletters, were found at Departamento de Documentação Histórica of Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (DEDHIS) and at Biblioteca de Educação of Universidade de São Paulo (FEUSP). The theoretical foundation has as a workline for the conception of the categories the studies of Gramsci about the of work (and the Newsletters itself), and the speech’s analysis of main concepts from Bakhtin, Voloshinov’s and the Circle of studies about language philosophy. At last, this paperwork concludes that the attempt to disseminate an amerizanization project in Brazil obtneined significant results on the industrialization of the country according to the fordism’s racionalization standarts, nevertheless, this research considers that such a project corroborates the comprehension about the consolidation of a Passive Revolution’s project.