The contributions of Clóvis Moura’s interpretation of slavery in Brazil and the possible dialogues with organization studies

Abstract

This study retakes some important points of the oeuvre of Clóvis Moura and delineates ways for its use in organization studies. Based on a perspective that places the racial issue at the center of social formation, it is possible to take some distance from approaches that relate “backwardness” in the periphery of capitalism to faulty administrative practices. The elements selected from Moura’s work were the emphasis on the role of the enslaved rebellion as an element of the slavery system erosion; the criticism of contemporary techniques of professional, cultural, and political selection; the role of dynamic social praxis; and the relationship between racial issues and economic dependence. The study identifies bridges between these ideas and organization studies, making it possible to i) question contemporary readings that place those that dominate as the protagonist of eventual social transformations by recognizing the potential of those who are dominated to recover their autonomy; ii) analyze how organizations are decisive spaces for inequality reproduction, pointing to the idea of promoting diversity in companies as a component of the myth that hides social reality; iii) reflect on how contemporary resistance movements, inspired by quilombagem, can be thought of from their capacity to erode the current system from connecting marginalized groups; iv) reflect on how the super-exploitation of work, allied to state economic austerity and police and parastatal violence, shows how the legacy of slavery adapts to continue reproducing and coordinating the dependent capitalism in the face of new artifacts and organizational arrangements.