Class relations in Brazilian construction sites

exploration, control and trust

Abstract

This article looks at the functioning of the job market in the construction sector of a small town in Minas Gerais. Based on ethnography of work practices and manual labour management in a medium-sized building site, the author aims to show how technical and organizational imperatives combine with the logic of class relations to shape the practices of recruitment, remuneration and dismissal. It is shown that, aiming at an efficient management and an effective control over the work process, informal protections are developed, in parallel with the institutionalized mechanisms of the market, for the establishment of relationships of loyalty and trust with the workers.The principle hypothesis discussed here is borrowed from Alain Morice, who, in the 1990s, suggested that the hierarchical relations and exploitation of manual labour in building sites could be explained in part by the contempt for these unqualified manual labourers originating in rural areas.