Este trabalho trata da estratificação social, e mais especificamente sobre a questão da relação entre posições de classe e modos de vida. O estudo da estratificação social se justifica pela relevância deste tema na sociologia, uma vez que sempre foi objeto de discussão, desde os autores clássicos até os contemporâneos. O aspecto dos modos de vida escolhido para a pesquisa foi o local de moradia. O objeto de estudo escolhido foi a cidade de São Carlos, e buscou-se analisar a relação entre as posições de classe e o local de moradia naquele município por meio de mapas e dados obtidos a partir do Censo 2000 do IBGE. A divisão da população em posições de classe foi feita por meio de um esquema baseado no de Erik Wright, e que foi considerado o mais adequado aos nossos objetivos e aos dados disponíveis. Os dados mostraram diferenças interessantes entre padrões de distribuição espacial de alguns conjuntos de posições de classe, levando-nos a crer que a posição de classe tem, sim, alguma influência nos modos de vida. / This work is about social stratification, and more specifically about the question of the relation between class locations and ways of life. The study of social stratification is self-justified by the relevance of this subject in sociology, as it has always been a discussion object since the classic authors to the contemporary ones. The aspect of the ways of life which we have chosen for this research was the place of living. The chosen object of study was the city of Sao Carlos, and we tried to analyze the relation between class locations and place of living in that city by using maps and data from the Census 2000, of IBGE. The division of the population within class locations was made by the use of a scheme based in Erik Wrights one, which we considered the most appropriate to our goals and with the available data. The maps and data had shown interesting differences between the patterns of spatial distribution of some sets of class locations. This has made us believe that the class location has, indeed, some sort of influence in the ways of life.

Este trabalho trata da estratificação social, e mais especificamente sobre a questão da relação entre posições de classe e modos de vida. O estudo da estratificação social se justifica pela relevância deste tema na sociologia, uma vez que sempre foi objeto de discussão, desde os autores clássicos até os contemporâneos. O aspecto dos modos de vida escolhido para a pesquisa foi o local de moradia. O objeto de estudo escolhido foi a cidade de São Carlos, e buscou-se analisar a relação entre as posições de classe e o local de moradia naquele município por meio de mapas e dados obtidos a partir do Censo 2000 do IBGE. A divisão da população em posições de classe foi feita por meio de um esquema baseado no de Erik Wright, e que foi considerado o mais adequado aos nossos objetivos e aos dados disponíveis. Os dados mostraram diferenças interessantes entre padrões de distribuição espacial de alguns conjuntos de posições de classe, levando-nos a crer que a posição de classe tem, sim, alguma influência nos modos de vida. / This work is about social stratification, and more specifically about the question of the relation between class locations and ways of life. The study of social stratification is self-justified by the relevance of this subject in sociology, as it has always been a discussion object since the classic authors to the contemporary ones. The aspect of the ways of life which we have chosen for this research was the place of living. The chosen object of study was the city of Sao Carlos, and we tried to analyze the relation between class locations and place of living in that city by using maps and data from the Census 2000, of IBGE. The division of the population within class locations was made by the use of a scheme based in Erik Wrights one, which we considered the most appropriate to our goals and with the available data. The maps and data had shown interesting differences between the patterns of spatial distribution of some sets of class locations. This has made us believe that the class location has, indeed, some sort of influence in the ways of life.

The main research questions for this local study of Tarkett AB, a floor manufacturer, are based on the central characteristics of the third industrial revolution: globalization, technological development, and organizational change. As a background to the local development and change towards the end of the twentieth century, I have chosen to emphasize, on the one hand, the increasing need of the industry for internationalization, rationalization, and productivity development after fordism and the demise of the regulated “real wages capitalism” in the middle of the 1970s, and, on the other, the work rights offensive of the labor movement in the 1970s and its continued struggle for economic and industrial authority. The method to analyze the essential traits of the organizational change process has aimed to construe a field of organizational change whose ideal types are based on taylorism, toyotism, flexible specialization, just-in-time, and lean production. Methods used to analyze change from the perspective of social structuration are also related to the theories of dynamic contradictory class locations, local hegemony, and gender. Apart from traditional source material and interviews, the study builds on the results from a study group consisting of a number of factory workers from Tarkett. Technological change and development (IT) of the work process on the factory floor has been analyzed as technological rationalization, quality development, work environment improvement, and as issues of gender relations and class positions at the work place. As regards the management process, leadership and control, centralization and decentralization concepts are vital. In matters concerning working conditions, including salaries, working hours, and job profiles (qualifications required for employment) are central. The management process was subject to changes that entailed deviations from the principles of traditional tayloristic management philosophy. Instead a participant change strategy implemented decentralized leadership functions in the shape of management by objectives via autonomous groups according to principles of ”responsible autonomy”. The investigation shows that computer-aided centralized control functions, competence improvement, and intensified ideological control worked together to change the management process. Decentralization of responsibility, the integration of white-collar like duties, the general competence development, and the higher demands on job qualifications, combined to render workers’ class locations more contradictory. This, together with ideological control and change, contributed to consolidate local hegemony.