Questions on a collapsing theoretical field

Abstract

This article is based on the discussion of some concepts developed by the Labour Process Theory, specially what can be considered as a loss of centrality of labour in contemporary societies, the workers subjectivitiy and the ideas of control and consent. The questions proposed in this paper are formulated during the research about the workers of the first State petrochemical enterprise in Brazil, and the metaphors they constructed to describe the place they work, their work conditions and themselves. Their practices and images could be considered as a result of sucessful manegement. The refuse of this hypotheses forced another and unusual form of explanation and the review of the main concepts used by the Labour Process Theory.