O campo da saúde do trabalhador e o conceito “processo de trabalho” em Marx

Abstract

The article discusses how the concept "labor process", in its marxist sense, is appropriated by the worker’s health field regarding the analysis of the determinants that influence the production of health and/or work's diseases. Initially, conceptual and political transformations that permeated the Labor Medicine, the Occupational Health and, finally, the worker’s health field are presented. It is observed how each of these theoretical-practical currents defines the relationship between health, work and illness, as well as the correlated ways of intervention are listed. In which concerns to the worker’s health, it is highlighted the necessity of this field of to produce knowledge grounded in a historical-critical basis that allows a dialectic comprehension on the work contexts. “Labor process” is defined from Marx, considering its three elementary dimensions, which are: object, tool and work. It is also observed the way how the control exercised over the workforce it was organized in the manufacture and in the machinery. By taking these notions as support, it is demonstrated how each one of the mentioned dimensions can have repercussions to health of the workers. Research models that are structured from the concept of “labor process” are also presented.