ABSTRACT
In the last three decades, the incentives that were provided to flexibilize labor relations occurred in tandem with neoliberal policies. In the Brazilian case, this is a delicate situation due to the extensive amount of outside contracting and outsourcing it entailed combined with the lack of a legal benchmark regulating the practice. A Federal Supreme Court Precedent is the main guiding instrument for judicial decisions as has proven itself insufficient. The objective of this article is to analyze the political-cognitive struggle in the Brazilian juridical field. The assumption is that every political struggle is also a cognitive one for the power to impart a legitimate view of the social world. Hence, the article analyzes the legal instruments, doctrine and standings taken by the justices of the Federal Labor Court related to outsourcing and contracting. Based on this material, discourse was analyzed in order to identify the juridical and ideological constructs that guide common understandings in the juridical field.
outsourcing; labor law; the undermining of rights; juridical field; political-cognitive struggles