Psychology and the Workers’ Health Movement in the State of São Paulo (Brazil)

Abstract

This article discusses the ways in which psychology has contributed to a new range of public health services concerned with the health of working people in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. It begins by discussing the political, institutional and theoretical bases from which the Workers' Health Movement emerged in the early 1980s as a replacement for previous approaches to occupational health. It provides examples of some of the different actions and practices that were developed and which had a key role in the battle for better working conditions and for an enhanced role for workpeople in organizational change. Finally it shows how the dialogue between the field of Workers' Health and psychology was crucial for the construction of psychology's social agenda.