Labor, Expropriation, and Legal Regulation: The Intensification of the Labor Force’s Subjugation to the Market

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15175/dn0sjf86

Keywords:

labor, law, expropriation, violence

Abstract

This article, which draws on a sociological and critical legal perspective, aims to analyze the relationships between legal violence, capitalism, and the intensification of the workforce’s availability to the market. To this end, it combines a broader theoretical framework (with special attention to materialist and dialectical references) with an investigation of the contemporary Brazilian context. The text is structured in three parts: (i) a theoretical discussion of the connections between law, violence, and labor; (ii) an analysis of the intensification of workers’ dispossession in the context of capital accumulation; (iii) an examination of aspects of the Brazilian labor counter-reform as a paradigmatic case for an integrated understanding of the theoretical axes presented in the preceding sections.

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Author Biography

  • Bruna da Penha de Mendonça Coelho, Rio de Janeiro State University

    Professor of Legal Sociology at UERJ. Professor at PPGD/UERJ and PPFH/UERJ. PhD in Sociology (IESP-UERJ) and Law (PPGD/UERJ). Master's degree in Law from PPGD/UERJ. Graduated in Law from UERJ and in Social Sciences from UNIRIO.  Member of the Institute of Science and Technology Work, Inclusion, and Equity (INCT-Trabalho), the Center for Research and Studies on Work at IESP-UERJ (NUPET), and the Network for Interdisciplinary Studies and Monitoring of Work Reconfigurations (REMIR-Trabalho).

References

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Published

2026-10-26

Issue

Vol. 18 - Nº 3 - Setembro a Dezembro (2026)

Section

Articles

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How to Cite

Labor, Expropriation, and Legal Regulation: The Intensification of the Labor Force’s Subjugation to the Market. (2026). Passages: International Review of Political History and Legal Culture, 18(3), 418-435. https://doi.org/10.15175/dn0sjf86