WORK, IDENTITY AND GLOBALIZED EXISTENCE IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM

Abstract

The development of the human species throughout history became viable due to rational capacity and its specification in the form of language, reflection and action. If human beings were able to survive in nature and build collectivities, to the point of building civilizations, this occurred primarily through the transformation of nature through action, through labor activity. In this sense, work is constitutive of the human happening in the world and is a decisive part among the elements that enable the human identity condition. This reflection turns to the discussion of work as an enabling element in the formation of human identity, placing it in its social functions, especially in modernity. And the culmination of the analysis proposed here occurs through the approach, at the last moment, of the role that work has at the same time, in a scenario of globalization and reconfiguration of social institutions, markets and labor activities. Based on the diagnosis of the present time and the characteristics of the current work environment, we point out possible alternatives for overcoming the crises that affect the world of work at a global level. The underlying methodology is inspired by the critical theory of society, based on the Frankfurt School's conceptions, more specifically on the discursive version it receives from Jürgen Habermas.