For Social Peace in Brazil: Industrialists and the Remaking of the Working Class in São Paulo, 1920-1964

by Barbara Weinstein

Overview

This book is the first major study of industrialists and social policy in Latin America. Barbara Weinstein examines the vast array of programs sponsored by a new generation of Brazilian industrialists who sought to impose on the nation their vision of a rational, hierarchical, and efficient society. She explores in detail two national agencies founded in the 1940s (SENAI and SESI) that placed vocational training and social welfare programs directly in the hands of industrialist associations. Assessing the industrialists' motives, Weinstein also discusses how both men and women in Brazil's working class received the agencies' activities. Inspired by the concepts of scientific management, rational organization, and applied psychology, Sao Paulo's industrialists initiated wide-ranging programs to raise the standard of living, increase productivity, and at the same time secure lasting social peace. According to Weinstein, workers initially embraced many of their efforts but were nonetheless suspicious of employers' motives and questioned their commitment to progressivism. By the 1950s, industrial leaders' notion of the working class as morally defective and their insistence on stemming civil unrest at all costs increasingly diverged from populist politics and led to the industrialists' active support of the 1964 military coup.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807866245
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	11/09/2000
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	456
Lexile:	1790L (what's this?)
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Barbara Weinstein, associate professor of history at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is author of The Amazon Rubber Boom, 1850-1920.

Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 Rationalization and Industry in the 1920s
2 Rational Organization and Social Reform
3 Industrialists in the Nation's Service
4 Inventing SENAI and SESI
5 Employers and Workers Respond
6 Remaking the Worker at Home and at Play
7 Remaking the Worker at Work
8 The Politics of Social Peace
Epilogue and Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Illustrations

The spinning workshop in the textiles section of the SENAI school in Ipiranga, 1948
Medical examination for an applicant to a SENAI course, "test of strength," 1943
Physical education classes for boys and girls at the SENAI school in Brás, 1946
Students in the SENAI course for industrial psychologists visit a textile factory, 1945
Engineering students in the course for lathe operators at SENAI's Escola Roberto Simonsen, 1950
Graduation ceremony for SENAI-São Paulo students, 1947
Inauguration of the Escola Roberto Simonsen, SENAI-São Paulo, 1949
SENAI course for glassmakers in the Nadir Figueiredo glass factory, 1951
Funeral procession for Morvan Dias de Figueiredo, 1950, in front of SENAI's Escola Roberto Simonsen
Members of the metallurgical workers' union visiting a metalworking section of SENAI's Escola Roberto Simonsen, 1951
Members of the textile workers' and textile supervisors' unions visiting a textile workshop in the SENAI school in Ipiranga, 1950
Oath being administered to "worker-athletes" at the opening of the fifth Workers' Olympics, May Day, 1951
Members of the construction workers' union listening to a lecture about SENAI courses in the union headquarters, 1950
Families of SENAI apprentices visiting a workshop for mechanics at the Escola Roberto Simonsen, 1950
Home economics class in sewing for female apprentices at the SENAI school in Campinas, 1946
Apprentices at the SENAI school in Br s during a period of recreation, 1947
The delegation of SENAI apprentices in the parade for the fifth Workers' Olympics, May Day, 1951
The SENAI "jeep" in the SESI-sponsored parade to inaugurate the fourth Workers' Olympics, May Day, 1950
Lunch for officials of the Second Army Division at the SENAI restaurant in the Escola Roberto Simonsen, 1949

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The strength and originality of For Social Peace in Brazil lies in Weinstein's ability to illuminate the interactions among different classes . . . while narrating the development of institutions intended to implement specific policies based on the ideologies of welfare capitalism and the promotion of social peace among classes.—Latin American Research Review



A very readable study, based on meticulous archival work."European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies



A major contribution to the growing historical literature on industrial labor in Brazil. . . . Offers a rigorous, eloquent, and original account of the flawed attempts by Sao Paulo capitalists to reshape the nature of industrial work and foster 'social peace' in Brazil.—Technology and Culture



An important [and innovative] contribution to the social and economic history of Latin America. Weinstein innovatively blends discourse analysis with more traditional approaches to paint a strikingly new portrait of Brazilian industrialists, labor relations, and social politics, one with broad implications for our understanding of the politics of modernity in the country of the future.—Peter Winn, Tufts University



Its brilliant analysis of labor relations in twentieth-century Brazil will make this book an essential and indispensable source for anyone who wishes to explore this terrain. Weinstein combines exhaustive and careful research with a stimulating critique of the existing bibliography on this theme.—Maria Ligia Prado, University of Sao Paulo

Editorial Reviews

An important [and innovative] contribution to the social and economic history of Latin America.

Peter Winn, Tufts University

ÝThe strength of¨ "For Social Peace in Brazil" lies in Weinstein's ability to illuminate the interactions among different classes.

"Latin American Research Review"

A very readable study, based on meticulous archival work.

"European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies"

An important Ýand innovative¨ contribution to the social and economic history of Latin America.

Peter Winn, Tufts University

Weinstein combines exhaustive and careful research with a stimulating critique of the existing bibliography on this theme.

Maria Ligia Prado, University of Sao Paulo

"A very readable study, based on meticulous archival work.

"European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies""

"An important [and innovative] contribution to the social and economic history of Latin America.

Peter Winn, Tufts University"

"Weinstein combines exhaustive and careful research with a stimulating critique of the existing bibliography on this theme.

Maria Ligia Prado, University of Sao Paulo"

[The strength of] "For Social Peace in Brazil" lies in Weinstein's ability to illuminate the interactions among different classes.

"Latin American Research Review"

A major contribution to the growing historical literature on industrial labor in Brazil.

"Technology and Culture"

From the Publisher