Publications by authors named "Denise Alvarez"

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig accident, in 2010, is considered the biggest disaster of the 21st century in the oil and gas industry. A total of 11 workers died, 17 were injured, total loss of the unit, and the largest environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico (United States). The existing literature encompasses its environmental, chemical, biological, and economic effects, focusing on immediate causes, that is, situations close to the event in time and space, especially human errors and technical failures.

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This paper is the product of an ongoing research's preliminary results with app drivers and aims to discuss how the game of forces has occurred in the relationships established between companies, workers, regulatory bodies, and society. This exploratory qualitative study employed document analysis, a questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews with drivers linked to associations in Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brazil. The analysis was conducted from a tripolar perspective based on the theoretical-methodological framework of Ergology and social life's micro and macroscopic spaces, encompassing the poles referring to human activity, the market, and politics.

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The accident with the P-36 oil rig in the Campos Basin in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, was one of the petroleum industry's worst international disasters. Based on this specific case, the article aims to (a) verify the role of the human dimension in the reliability of highly complex systems, with a focus on the management of incidental and accidental situations with the potential to lead to large-scale accidents. The analysis should help (b) shed light on some of the organizational factors that can increase the risk level in offshore activities, beyond the so-called immediate causes.

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This article presents the labor management changes and the implications for occupational health and safety that occurred after two thermoelectric plants were acquired by a government-owned, joint stock with private investors, energy corporation. The changes led part of these workers to question their own professional abilities, as previously experienced workers were suddenly considered unqualified due to the new organizational model and restructuring implemented in their units. It was seen how lack of professional recognition in the workplace led to negative health and safety consequences for workers, as there were numerous cases of psychic anguish, emotional disorders, musculoskeletal problems, gastrointestinal disorders, etc.

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The paper deals with the issue of the transformation of the worlds of work, focusing on the healthcare sector from the ergological perspective, the object of reflection and analysis of which are human activities. Initially an attempt is made to show the transformations that have occurred in performing the activity per se, emphasizing the discussions of norms and values present in healthcare situations, based on research that addressed the activities of care. Subsequently the change of values that occur in a tripolar space are discussed, in which the activity is one of the poles, indicating the tensions that impinge upon it and examining the coexistence of different temporalities that surround the worlds of work.

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The objective of this paper is to introduce the Website "Encontros sobre a vida, a saúde e o trabalho nas escolas públicas" (Encounters of life, health and work in public schools). It was designed viewing to contribute to the generation of changes regarding the meanings attributed to work done by all professionals acting in Brazilian public schools, in their relationship to health. We have tried to create a space conducive to reflection and invention of different ways of action towards the struggle for health of the protagonists of the school units.

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The purpose of this article is to discuss professional education and training programs offered to teams of operators by the main company in the area of Bacia de Campos (Petrobras), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It also discusses the necessary skills to the new functions derived from the implementation of an organizational innovation, the polyvalence, and how such innovation has impacted operators' activity. By using elements of WEA and the device "Meetings on the Work" it was possible to gain a better understanding of both the distance between the dimensions of prescribed work and real work, and the articulation between outsourcing and the proposition of polyvalence, which have stimulated the creation of new functions, namely, the polyvalent operator and the operator-maintainer, this latter being in fact an evolvement of the first.

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This article analyzes the relationship between the intensive use of outsourcing and labor organizations on offshore oil platforms in the Campos Basin, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The theoretical and methodological framework applied in our research is based on Ergonomics of Activity and the Psychodynamics of Work, from an ergological perspective. In addition to the more general trend of increasing precariousness, we highlight the potential loss of formal and informal knowledge resulting from the fragmentation of work collectives, as we consider the cohesion of these collectives to be a crucial element contributing to reliability in process operations.

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