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Managerial Transactions and the Reconfiguration of Disciplinary Power in Brazil's Agroindustry: From Colonato to Wage Labor

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Listed:
  • Allan K. Watanabe Tabuti
  • Danielle Guizzo
  • Sebastiao Neto Ribeiro Guedes

Abstract

This paper develops a theoretical and empirical account on the relationship between economic organizations and the production of subjectivities in labor relations. Drawing on John R. Commons's institutional concept of transactions and Michel Foucault's analysis of power, it argues that managerial transactions function as disciplinary apparatuses that actively constitute productive and subordinated subjects, reframing labor contracts as technologies of subjectivation. Empirically, we examine the transformation of labor relations in Brazil's sugarcane agroindustry between 1930 and 1990, focusing on the colonato system and its transition to wage labor (boia-fria). Through a Foucauldian-Institutionalist lens, we show how the colonato's managerial transactions reveal how they functioned as disciplinary devices grounded in spatial dependence, debt, and paternalistic control. The shift to wage labor did not dismantle these mechanisms, but reconfigured them, displacing spatial and paternalistic subjection with individualized performance control and competitive evaluation.

Suggested Citation

  • Allan K. Watanabe Tabuti & Danielle Guizzo & Sebastiao Neto Ribeiro Guedes, 2026. "Managerial Transactions and the Reconfiguration of Disciplinary Power in Brazil's Agroindustry: From Colonato to Wage Labor," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 26/828, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    • Handle: RePEc:bri:uobdis:26/828
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Danielle Guizzo, 2021. "Reassessing Foucault: Power in the History of Political Economy," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(1), pages 60-74, February.
    2. Rodrigo Constantino Jeronimo & Sebastião Neto Ribeiro Guedes, 2023. "A Commonsian Reading on Brazilian Unionism," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(3), pages 900-923, July.
    3. William M. Dugger, 1980. "Power: An Institutional Framework of Analysis," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 897-907, December.
    4. Pedro Ramos & Tamás Szmrecsanyi, 2002. "Evolução histórica dos grupos empresariais da agroindústria canavieira paulista," História Econômica & História de Empresas, ABPHE, vol. 5(1), pages 85-115, January-J.
    5. John Marangos, 2007. "John Rogers Commons on Power," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 50-66.
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