Horizonte (Jul 2015)
Between Taylor and the Catholic Action. The scientific management and the attempt to re-Christianize labor in Portugal (1945-1974)
Abstract
While analyzing the period of greater affirmation of scientific management in Portugal, it began to become clear the presence of a generation of technicians linked to the Catholic Action and its youth movements, especially the “Juventude Universitária Católica”. These individuals were a constant presence in publications about the subject and they were also present in leading positions of State organisms related to labor, such as the National Institute of Industrial Research and the “Ministério das Corporações”. When we tried to understand the cause of this reality, our research led us to the Catholic discourse about labor and made us understand how this concern was related to the attempt to re-Christianize the society from within. Crossing sources from the Holy See, the Catholic Action and Portuguese publications related to labor, we intended to reconstruct a speech - the only one about the scientific management in Portugal - and a reality that had been forgotten and that will help us understand some of the characteristics of the process of development of scientific management in the country between 1945 and 1974.
