Browse > Article
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2017.01.003

Health and Safety at Work: Analysis from the Brazilian Documentary Film Flesh and Bone  

Mendes, Luciano (School of Agriculture "Luiz de Queiroz" (ESALQ), University of Sao Paulo)
dos Santos, Heliani Berlato (School of Agriculture "Luiz de Queiroz" (ESALQ), University of Sao Paulo)
Ichikawa, Elisa Yoshie (State University of Maringa)
Publication Information
Safety and Health at Work / v.8, no.4, 2017 , pp. 347-355 More about this Journal
Abstract
Background: The objective of this article is to make some analysis on the process of work and accidents occurring in slaughterhouses, evidenced in the Brazilian documentary film called Flesh and Bone. As such, it was necessary to discuss an alternative theoretical concept in relation to theories about health and safety at work. This alternative discussion focuses on the concepts of biopower and biopolitics. Methods: The use of audiovisual elements in research is not new, and there is already a branch of studies with methodological and epistemological variations. The Brazilian documentary Flesh and Bone was the basis for the research. The analysis of this documentary will be carried out from two complementary perspectives: "textual analysis" and "discourse analysis." Results: Flesh and Bone presents problems related to health and safety at work in slaughterhouses because of the constant exposure of workers to knives, saws, and other sharp instruments in the workplace. The results show that in favor of higher production levels, increased overseas market sales, and stricter quality controls, some manufacturers resort to various practices that often result in serious injuries, disposal, and health damages to workers. Conclusion: Flesh and Bone, by itself, makes this explicit in the form of denunciation based on the situation of these workers. What it does not make clear is that, in the context of biopolitics, the actions aimed at solving these problems or even reducing the negative impacts for this group of workers, are not efficient enough to change such practices.
Keywords
biopolitics; biopower; documentary film; health and safety at work;
Citations & Related Records
연도 인용수 순위
  • Reference
1 Brazilian Protection Yearbook. J Protection 2015; 18:276-978. 2015 [cited 2016 Mar 3]. Available from: http://www.protecao.com.br/conteudo/anuario_ brasileiro_de_p_r_o_t_e_c_a_o/anuario_2015/J9yJA5_JayAJa.
2 Aires MDM, Gámez MCR, Gibb A. Prevention through design: the effect of European directives on construction workplace accidents. Saf Sci 2010;48:248-58.   DOI
3 Nenonen S. Fatal workplace accidents in outsourced operations in the manufacturing industry. Saf Sci 2011;49:1394-403.   DOI
4 Belk R. Examining markets, marketing, consumers, and society through documentary films. J Macromarketing 2011;31:403-9.   DOI
5 Steyaert C, Marti L, Michels C. Multiplicity and reflexivity in organizational research: towards a performative approach to the visual. Qual Res Organ Manage Int J 2012;7:34-53.   DOI
6 Nahrgang J, Morgeson F, Hofmann D. Safety at work: a meta-analytic investigation of the link between job demands, job resources, burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes. J Appl Psychol 2011;96:771-99.
7 Zanko M, Dawson P. Occupational health and safety management in organizations: a review. Int J Manage Rev 2012;14:328-44.   DOI
8 Foucault M. The birth of biopolitics: lectures at the College de France, 1978-1979. London (England): Palgrave Macmillan; 2008. 572 p.
9 Zamora M. The bodies of naked life: survivors or resistant? Lat-Am J Fundam Psychopathol 2008:104-17.
10 Grugulis I, Stoyanova D. Social capital and networks in film and TV: jobs for the boys? Organ Stud 2012;33:1311-31.   DOI
11 Wood M, Brown S. Film-based creative arts enquiry: qualitative researchers as auteurs. Qual Res J 2012;12:130-47.   DOI
12 Gauthier G. Le documentaire, un autre cinema. Paris (France): Nathan; 1995. 498 p.
13 Landsbergis P, Grzywacz J, LaMontagne A. Work organization, job insecurity, and occupational health disparities. Am J Ind Med 2014;57:495-515.   DOI
14 Mayou R, Bryant B, Ehlers A. Prediction of psychological outcomes one year after a motor vehicle accident. Am J Psychiatry 2001;56:321-42.
15 Turner G. Film as social practice. New York (NY): Routledge; 1988. 497 p.
16 Metz C. Language and cinema. Brussels (Belgium): Walter de Gruyter; 1974. 527 p.
17 Metz C. The imaginary signifier: psychoanalysis and the cinema. Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press; 1982. 629 p.
18 Foucault M. Society must be defended: lectures at the College de France, 1975-1976. New York (NY): Picador; 2003. 625 p.
19 Nielsen M. Bullying in work groups: the impact of leadership. Scan J Psychol 2013;54:127-36.   DOI
20 Bakker A, Demerouti E, Sanz-Vergel A. Burnout and work engagement: the JDeR approach. Annu Rev Organ Psychol Organ Behav 2014;1:389-411.   DOI
21 Harrington S, Warren S, Rayner C. Human resource management practitioners’ responses to workplace bullying: cycles of symbolic violence. Organization 2015;22:368-89.   DOI
22 Cottini E, Lucifora C. Mental health and working conditions in Europe. Ind Lab Rel R 2013;66:958-88.   DOI
23 Statistical Yearbook of Occupational Accidents. Brazilian Ministry of Labour. BML. 2014 [cited 2016 Mar 3]. Available from: http://www.mtps.gov.br/ dados-abertos/dados-da-previdencia/estatistica-saude-e-seguranca-dotrabalhador/anuario-estatistico-de-acidentes-do-trabalho-aeat.
24 Arendt H. Eichmann in Jerusalem: a report on the banality of evil. New York (NY): Viking Press; 1994. 489 p.
25 Sievers B. Work, death, and life itself: essays on management and organization. New York (NY): Walter de Gruyter; 1994. 560 p.
26 Artaud A. The theater and its double. London (UK): Grove Press; 1978. 168 p.
27 Lupo J. Loaded canons: contemporary film canons, film studies, and film discourse. J Am Cult 2011;34:219-33.   DOI
28 Saloniemi A, Oksanen H. Accidents and fatal accidents: some paradoxes. Saf Sci 1998;29:59-66.   DOI
29 Rossi U. On life as a fictitious commodity: cities and the biopolitics of late neoliberalism. Int J Urban Regional Res 2013;37:1067-74.   DOI
30 Foucault M. The history of sexuality I. An introduction. New York (NY): Pantheon Books; 1978. 296 p.
31 Foucault M. The order of things: an archaeology of the human sciences. New York (NY): Pantheon Books; 1971. 587 p.
32 Dean T. The biopolitics of pleasure. S Atl Quart 2012;111:477-96.   DOI
33 Lentin A. Post-race, post politics: the paradoxical rise of culture after multiculturalism. Ethnic Racial Stud 2014;37:1268-85.   DOI
34 Lee H. Managing the living through the dead. J Hist Sociol 2014;27:402-22.   DOI
35 Dale K, Burrell G. Being occupied: an embodied re-reading of organizational 'wellness'. Organization 2014;21:159-77.   DOI
36 Devisch I, Vanheule S. Foucault at the bedside: a critical analysis of empowering a healthy lifestyle. J Eval Clin Pract 2015;21:427-32.   DOI
37 Dean M. The Malthus effect: population and the liberal government of life. Econ Soci 2015;44:18-39.
38 Munro I. The management of circulations: biopolitical variations after Foucault. Int J Manage Rev 2012;14:345-62.   DOI
39 Spieker J. Defending the open society: Foucault, Hayek, and the problem of biopolitical order. Econ Soc 2013;42:304-21.   DOI
40 Ojakangas M. Michel Foucault and the enigmatic origins of bio-politics and governmentality. Hist Hum Sci 2012;46:198-214.
41 Agamben G. Homo sacer: El Poder soberano y la nuda vida Valencia. Barcelona (Spain): Pre-Textos; 1998. 258 p.
42 Peters M. Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer project. Educ Philos Theory 2014;46:327-33.   DOI
43 MacGregor C. The right to life: human life, bio-power and the performativity of law. J Sociol 2015;51:47-62.   DOI
44 Fitzgerald A. A social history of the slaughterhouse: from inception to contemporary implications. Hum Ecol Rev 2010;17:58-69.
45 Dionne C, Bourbonnais R, Fremont P, Rossignol M, Stock S, Laperriere E. Obstacles to and facilitators of return to work after work-disabling back pain: the workers' perspective. J Occup Rehab 2013;23:280-9.   DOI
46 Foucault M. Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. London (UK): Allen Lane; 1977. 397 p.
47 Agamben G. Il tempo che resta: un commento alla Lettera ai Romani. Torino (Italy): Bollati Borin-ghieri; 2000. 278 p.