Political consciousness and the likelihood of workers from a sanitation company to politically engage in anti-privatization actions in southeastern Brazil

Abstract

This article analyzes how political consciousness affects the likelihood of workers in a Brazilian sanitation company to engage in anti-privatization activities put forward by a union, seeking to understand the psychopolitical aspects of workers’ participation in such movements. The research is based on studies of political psychology and uses the analytical model of political consciousness to understand participation in collective actions (Sandoval, 2001; Sandoval & Silva, 2016). Data were obtained through an online questionnaire on the union’s website, completed by 87 workers from different professional categories, out of a total of 1,400 company employees, submitted to content analysis. The results reveal political consciousness that are devoid of collective engagement, whose settings, according to professional categories, are: devoted employee - operational assistant; competitive employee - administrative assistant; diffuse worker - sanitation technicians, and expert worker - sanitation analyst. It is concluded that the feeling of opposition to the company’s privatization predominates, but without workers’ engagement in collective anti-privatization actions, opting for an individualistic attitude of preserving the position in the labor market. This research fills a gap in organizational studies with a psychopolitical approach to workers’ (de)mobilization in privatization processes.

Keywords:
Political Consciousness; Participation; Privatization; Organizational Studies; Public administration