This book examines recent developments in Brazilian labour relations and is based on a threefold theoretical background. It draws on the theory of citizenship and the workers' contribution to its development. By analysing the state of labour relations in Brazil and the role of the new unionism on the reform of the corporate institutions inherited from the 1930s, it provides useful information and insights into Brazilian industrial relations and its perspectives for change.

Finally, by applying regression analysis to data collected in a survey carried out with workers in Recife, a poor metropolitan region in northeast Brazil, it shows how the proposals and practices of the new unionism have successfully developed a new political culture - the 'political culture of active citizenship'.