They do not use Lattes: precariousness and social invisibility in outsourced workers of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte
Outsourced; University; Social Invisibility; Aporophobia.
The present study investigates the precarization and social invisibility processes of outsourced workers at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and how the both feedback each other. In order to seek the understanding of the phenomenon, we started from a critical bibliography on the subject of work (MARX, 2010) and its “flexibility” (HARVEY, 2008; ANTUNES, 2017; MÉSZÁROS, 2009) in contemporary society, marked by aporophobia (CORTINA, 2017). Moreover, we discussed some reports from precarious workers themselves, including interviews contained in books on the subject (COSTA, 2004; DIAS, 2014; NASCIMENTO, 2016). The external cleaning work at the university is invisible, as already researched, but we are investigating here how this happens with workers who share the same internal spaces, observing a case of extreme separation between intellectual and manual work. Separation operated and observed from everyday life (HELLER, 2014; GOFFMAN, 2014; SENNETT, 2012; KOSIK, 2010; NETTO, 2007). Finally, we understand that the locus of the university must be considered as a fundamental element in research within the conceptual pair university-organization and university-institution (CHAUÍ, 2001), as it produces and reproduces some theories and ideas (EAGLETON, 1996; HARVEY, 2008; JAMESON, 1997) that affect the social life of the university, reinforcing that the workers inserted in it are, in all senses, paradoxically, an external community.