Contemporary enslaved: the search for dignity

Abstract

The article presents a study on the dignity and abstraction character attributed to the concept in its historical trajectory. It aims to analyze its importance in the production and legitimation of the concept of contemporary slave labor. It discusses the social struggles that gave visibility to the theme of contemporary slavery in Brazil and reached the social and legal spheres. It brings reflections on recent transformations at global and local levels, anchored in neoliberal ideas, which had repercussions in dealing with enslavement and in the weakening of the promise of dignity. It assumes that the concept of dignity cannot be understood as absolute, as meanings are altered according to the context and genre of discourse in which the term is used. The study of the transformations that occur in Brazil and in the world is essential for the apprehension of the meanings that are announced for dignity, in contemporaneity. The research is structured on a bibliographical review on the theme of contemporary slave labor, combined with analyzes by researchers from neoliberalism, with dialogues in philosophy.