Thesis Title: "THE MIDDLE CLASS IN CONTEMPORARY BRAZIL: a study on public servants of the federal judiciary in the state of Pará"

Student: FERNANDA IRACEMA MOURA ARNAUD

Summary: This Thesis is the result of reflections and analyzes carried out on social class and middle class in contemporary Brazil, from an empirical research carried out in 04 (four) Federal Courts installed in the state of Pará and 01 (one) union of federal civil servants, whose subjects were 24 (twenty-four) servants of the aforementioned Courts and 01 (one) union representative. We opted for qualitative research, using the questionnaire and the semi-structured interview as data collection instruments. The theoretical-methodological framework used for data analysis was the Marxist theory and the historical and dialectical materialism method, which enabled the understanding of the economic, political and social determinants of the so-called middle class constituted in the context of the new morphology of the working class, as well. as, the problematization of what can characterize the middle class in contemporary Brazil, in particular, public servants of the Federal Courts in the state of Pará. Likewise, it allowed us to analyze the contradictory interests underlying the fractions of the working class expressed in the transformations that have been taking place in the world of work, in particular, in the aforementioned Courts. The results of this study showed that the new form of workforce management that has been adopted in the aforementioned Courts, based on the "modernization" of the Brazilian Judiciary, has led to the institution of new forms of control and intensification of work expressed by the loss of autonomy , by functional versatility, etc., thus explaining that certain attributes that characterized these servants as belonging to the Brazilian middle class, referenced by official bodies or by society, namely: income level or remuneration standard and purchasing power and access goods and services, especially private ones, are being eroded. It was also found that despite the servants of these Courts, they still have some social achievements, such as: job stability (currently at risk due to the Administrative Reform), social assistance and benefits, as well as a standard of differentiated remuneration and professional qualification, in relation to other fractions of the working class, the working and living conditions of the aforementioned servers, currently, indicate severe losses of these achievements, given that new forms of precariousness of labor relations were instituted, reduction of provision of health policy services and social security benefits, wage losses, etc., that is, the broader social coverage that was guaranteed to these servers and their families, is increasingly restricted. Thus, it is understood that the new forms of precariousness of work that have been experienced by the servers of the aforementioned Courts who were characterized as middle class, contradictorily, have driven the creation of strategies of struggle and resistance to the loss of social achievements of these servers, in articulation with other fractions of the working class, which, however, need to advance towards the defense of a societal project of political emancipation of this class, in Brazil, being essential for this, the formation of class consciousness "in and of itself ”, in particular of the middle class, which presents itself as deeply diverse, fragmented and, in general, impregnated by bourgeois ideology, therefore, permeated by fetishisms that contribute to further alienate their class condition, as analyzed in this study.

Keywords: Social class. Working class. Middle class. Contemporary capital crisis. State counter-reform. Public servant of the Federal Judiciary.

Review Board:

Profa. Dra.  VERA LÚCIA BATISTA GOMES (Counselor)-UFPA

Profa. Dra.  JOANA VALENTE SANTANA (Internal Evaluation) – UFPA

Profa. Dra.   MARIA ANTÔNIA CARDOSO NASCIMENTO  (Internal Evaluation) – UFPA

Profa. Dra.  ANA CRISTINA OLIVEIRA DE OLIVEIRA (External Evaluator)- UFF

Profa. Dra.   RAQUEL CARDEIRA VARELA (External Evaluator) - UNL

Location: Google Meet: meet.google.com/bdk-kgfn-wqo

Date: 01/31/2022

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