Abstract

CARENZO, Sebastián; ACEVEDO, Ramiro  and  BARBARO, Julián. Building trade: work experiences of members of a Social Plant of Separation in CEAMSE. Trab. soc. [online]. 2013, n.20, pp.221-238. ISSN 1514-6871.

The recovery and classification of waste has been considered a finished expression of "informal" and "precarious" work. To depend on "garbage" is seen as the last resource of those situated on the margins of "society". This experiences are often characterized as the inverted image of "formal work". In this paper we will present some preliminary results of an analysis done on interviews to members of a community organization in the Gran Buenos Aires. This people that used to supply themselves by entering the landfill, are now in charge of managing one of the "classification and separation plants" authorized inside the landfill. We support the need to recover the meanings this people combine to define their work practices, suspending preconstructed notions such as "informal", "precarious" or indecent" work. As the testimonies analyzed show, the members of this group build these meanings in analogy with those which shape the world of formal work. Particularly, our analysis emphasized the way in which these practices of recovery and classification of waste acquire the shape of a new "trade". Our data shows the need to rethink the labels which circulate in the word of work and have an incidence on the configuration of policies and programs; realizing that under recent statements about the eradication of these practices, are hidden various attempts to deactivate initiatives which dispute the monopoly of the waste management system, which now hold the private companies of refuse collection and CEAMSE.

Keywords : "Informal work"; Recovery and classification of waste; CEAMSE; New trade.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )