ABSTRACT
The analysis presents is based on field research carried out over three years in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, the capital of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. The analysis of the process by which the author's informants become involved in such a rationality pays special attention to the role of the work environment and of technical training schools. Obtaining a technical qualification is a traditional means to life improvement used by the Brazilian working classes. The weight of the absence of socialization at school appears fully when compare the testimonies of those who describe themselves as shy with those that do not and who describe their experiences at the TI, at university and in the job market quite differently, in positive terms. Touraine draws attention to the fact that modernity is not based exclusively on rationalization, but that it is defined by the permanent tension between reason and subject, between rationalization and subjectivization.
