Surveillance, control and technology:a study on the supermarket sector in São Paulo

Abstract

Through a direct observation of three large Brazilian supermarket chains, this article discusses how new technologies are used to control workers. From the beginning of industrial capitalism, different technologies have been used to produce behaviors that generate greater productivity, imposing a work discipline. With the passage to control society, video surveillance has spread throughout the most different spaces of daily life. In supermarkets, a system has been developed in recent years to reduce risks: loss prevention. This article discusses precisely this system as a device of labor control, analyzing its surveillance techniques as a form of workers’ control.

Keywords

• vigilância
• controle
• tecnologia
• trabalho.