THE NEW SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM: CRITICISMS AND CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE SOUTH

With the change of century a debate took place in the South and North of the planet about the propagation of a new spirit of capitalism, inspired by the work of Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello, published in 1999. After two years Sociologie du travail published a dossier, dedicated to this work, with two questioning comments and the responses of Boltanski and Chiapello. Taking as starting point some of the criticisms made to this work, we begin this article. Subsequently, we present a recent reinvigoration of the discussion, particularly in Brazil. We chose four dimensions that confront French criticism and research in Brazil: empirical material, components; social and state agents; and consent. The study of the new spirit of capitalism thus presents itself as a research program to be developed.