Respigadoras Modernas E Produção Da Existência No Agronegócio Canavieiro: A (Des)Realização No Trabalho De Bituqueiras

This research analyzes the individual and collective defense strategies (DEJOURS) mobilized by agribusiness workers to deal with the estrangement of work (ANTUNES) and the social mechanisms of worker habituation (BRAVERMAN). This conceptual triad seeks to answer the following question: how do the individuals mobilize defenses in the performance of a work that is rigidly organized and precarious? For data collection, the technique of semi-structured interviews was applied to nine workers who perform the work of “bituqueiras”. The content analysis method was used in the interview analysis. The results show that these workers mobilize different strategies that become the basis for a social defense system: (1) fear of dismissal due to the few local job options for women with low qualifications and the need for survival; (2) anxiety about the risks generated by a work activity that causes physical and mental suffering; (3) anguish and anger in dealing with inequalities in gender issues; (4) valuing the pleasure of acquiring products vis-à-vis the impossible pleasure of a liberating work; and (5) the search for meaning for their existence vis-à-vis the cruelty of stigmatization and “social disgust”. This article shows the potential of the conceptual triad used in the research for an understanding of internal relations: workers’ defense strategies, collective defense systems, business management processes and socioeconomic processes.