Processo de trabalho e produção de vínculos sociais: eficiência e solidariedade na triagem de materiais recicláveis

Abstract

The common basis for the formation of associations and cooperatives of collectors is the social vulnerability of its members, since most collectors find employment difficulties due to low education levels, age, and other characteristics that are inconsistent with the requirements of the formal market. The work in associations is one of the few income opportunities, for these people whose value depends on their collective productive capacity. Low pay increases conflict, turnover of members and makes working in associations unattractive, especially for those who are more productive. Thus, efficiency and solidarity seem incompatible, i.e., where there is efficiency, there is no solidarity. This antagonism expresses the separation between the modern world economy and social life, which also gives rise to an idea of economic man, motivated only by instrumental and utilitarian interests. Studies on the gift helps us to understand the possibilities of social ties that differ from the utilitarian model that sees modern man as essentially selfish acting only according to its own interests. This approach proposes that social life arises only under conditions of donation, trust and solidarity that are not explainable, not from the perspective of individual interest, nor by the state bureaucratic rationality, but are clarified by the paradox of the gift that seeks to understand how interest and obligation coexist in a concrete and historical way. Thus, in the paradox of the gift, the gift becomes the preferred operator of the creation of social ties. The conflicts experienced in the associations of collectors of recyclable materials are presented in the forms of work organization (production rules, remuneration systems, division of labor) and express the contradictions between the logic of the market, of the state and of the gift.