Mercado de trabalho e empregabilidade sob a lógica do capital: representações sociais do secretariado executivo no Amapá (1998-2011)

Abstract

Social representations are influenced by the socio-historical context in which they operate and focus on the relationship between science and reality. Their study aims at seeking explanations of behavior, speech and social practice. In today's society, the capitalist system, the changes in the working world and the ideology of employability are elements that interfere in how individuals perceive their social and working condition. The objective of this study was to analyze the social representations of the Executive Secretary on his profession and employability in the labor market in Amapá state. Therefore, qualitative research was performed through the historical and dialectical method. To do so, twelve subjects were interviewed on profession, labor market and employment, and then, their interviews were analyzed from the perspective of social representations. Such participants belonged to three different categories: there were four graduates in Executive Secretary employed in the local market, four unemployed Executive Secretary graduates, and four students from the Bachelor of Executive Secretariat of UNIFAP. The analysis of their speech brought out contradictions and ideologies present in the worldview of those who issued the speech; besides, speaking of respondents confirmed the hypothesis that the representations of the Executive Secretaries on their profession and employability reflect the ideology of personal competence and qualification as main requirements for entry and stay in the labor market. Thus, the representations of Executive Secretaries reproduce the discourse that human capital is itself maintainer employability. However, there are contrasts of evidence to that neoliberal discourse, which arise as individual critical to the stereotype observed on the profession, the precariousness of work experienced in Amapá state, and the socioeconomic status of such place interferes with the development of the region and, consequently, with the business community's demand for certain of the Executive Secretary workforce. Changes in the context of the profession, that is, the operator how capital rules the world of work as well as the development of policies to improve quality of local life will be needed in order to modify its representations. These questions seem to require a strong class movement in favor of the community and not just individual interventions to climb spaces in the workplace. the analysis of representations shows that the capitalist system fulfills its role to influence the subject ideologically and technically for the reproduction of capital, creating strategies that reinforce the need for workforce flexible to market through the qualification process and the ideology of employability. On the other hand, there are individual changes occurring toward a sense of work that meets the needs of the individual seeking survival alternatives in different occupations of their area of training or through collective struggle by unions and the search for creation of regulatory agencies of professional practice