The paper aims to review the critical Brazilian literature on work organisation ("division of labour") based on some key papers that have inaugurated the discussion in the 70/80s. It is an analysis a posteriori by relating papers, questions, and social and economical and political environment. It is neither a synthesis nor a résumé of the literature. Obviously, the task means that large omissions will occur; anyway, such kind of papers are considered necessary to rethink practices and approaches in the field. We can perceive that the thematic is very connected to the societal environment of each period, representing questions, social actors in dispute, and development stages of forces of production. In the end, we propose some questions on the subject.
work organisation; work process; division of labour; productive restructuring; labour; social change