Images of Work for Consumption: Factory’s Representations in Ideological Propaganda and Advertising

Abstract

Publicizing the world of work has a long history. Especially since the twentieth century, images of workers have become complex ideological signs, driven by the culture of media, developed during this period. As Ciavatta argued: “Representations of the social world, though aiming at universality, are always determined by the interests of the groups who create them” (Ciavatta 2002, 22). Such representations thus are not just a reflection of reality. They are indeed produced, distributed, and symbolically consumed, while editing reality and constituting regimes of visibility. They spread, reinforce, and contrast worldviews and ideologies. This paper uses images of the world of work to explore discursive dynamics and ideological propaganda; such an object of analysis is not simple when taking into account the range of meanings that “work” can have for a human beings in the production of subjectivity, in their transformations of nature through work, and in their transformations of self: The concept of world of work or worlds of work includes material and productive activities as well as processes of natural creation, which have been generated along with the reproduction of life. On that basis, we evoke the complex universe that has been significantly simplified to one of its apparent forms such as occupation, work product, work activities, regardless of the complexity of the social relations that underpin these actions. (Ciavatta 2002, 126)