BETWEEN OBJECTIVITY AND SUBJECTIVITY: HOW THE ECONOMICAL CONTEXT TRANSFORMATIONS MAY INFLUENCE SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF WORK AND FUTURE CASTELLINI Federica Psychology Department, University of Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy email: federica. castellini@unimib. it
INTRODUCTION ► Objective ‘ecological’ changes within the socioeconomic context (Europe and Italy) § Flexibility ► In the working activity ► In the way of working ► In the employer-employee relationship (new laws) ► In the labour market dynamics FLEXIBILITY gradual disappearance of the permanent job position, pervasiveness of casual job (atypical contracts) especially for young people ► There is a new labour reality (more and more instable and uncertain)
THE PROBLEM ► Which are the influences of these changes on young people’s ‘subjectivity’ (on their social representations of work and future)? § Are the growing casualization of the labour market and its flexibility transforming social representations of work? Are they forcing young people to imagine an instable future, built up on fragmented and precarious bases?
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ► Psychological ecology (Lewin, 1943) § …suggests to study “all the coexistent facts thought as mutually interdependent for a person in a given moment” § Changes in the socio-economic context are new structural elements, ‘ecological factors’, ‘non psicological factors’ which influence subjectivity
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ► Bourdieu (1979) § “independent variables such as sex, age and education level” forming the actual empirical field in one datum; all such factors, considered as a whole, can influence the subjectivity. § Rejecting a linear and direct causal relation of a single factor on the dependent variable/s to assume the hypothesis of a “structural causal relation of a factors network”
MAIN HYPOTHESIS ► In this new labour reality the GLOBAL WEAVE OF ALL THE “ECOLOGICAL FACTORS” may influence and reveal differences in both representations of work and future ► Among others, ecological factors would comprise: type of work contract, educational level (or type of degree), gender and original family’s cultural-economical capital
SECONDARY HYPOTHESIS ► THE TYPE OF CONTRACT working under a temporary work contract may influence the young people’s representations of their future. In particular, this may delay the accomplishment of young people’s projects, either work projects or projects of independence or projects aiming to build a family, or it can make this more difficult
SECONDARY HYPOTHESIS ► Other ecological factors, such as GENDER, the ORIGINAL FAMILY SOCIAL-ECONOMIC STATUS and CULTURAL BACKGROUND, as well as the TYPE OF DEGREE may influence the perception of one’s own present condition and representation of one’s future as well; some of these factors may protect against uncertainty and other factors may, on the contrary, make it harder and harder
METHOD ► This contribution shows the outcomes of the 3 rd and last phase of a quali-quantitative research performed between 2003 and 2005 involving GRADUATE WORKERS (men and women, 25 -35 aged) working under fixedterm contracts or open-ended contracts in Lombardy (Italian region) ► Every phase was defined by the outcomes obtained from the previous phases
METHOD ► 1 st (qualitative) PHASE 20 exploratory interviews ► 2 nd (quantitative) PHASE 213 questionnaires ► 3 rd (qualitative) PHASE 24 in-depth interviews § 12 atypical workers 6 men and 6 women; 7 with a ‘weak’ degree and 5 with a ‘strong’ degree (Istat, 2003, 2004, 2005) § 12 typical workers 6 men and 6 women; 7 with a ‘weak’ degree and 5 with a ‘strong’ degree
METHOD ► The corpus has been analysed according to a qualitative and phenomenological approach ► The corpus of qualitative data (all the 24 interviews) was classified by gender, type of contract, type of degree and status ► The text contents have been explored and mapped through the lexical correspondences analysis and the cluster analysis computed by the software T-LAB Pro (Lancia, 2001).
RESULTS A representation of the corpus contents: Typologies of the Elementary Context (E. C. ) CLUSTER 1 CLUSTER 4 Educational Background Towards independence: a new home, a new family CLUSTER 2 CLUSTER 5 Atypical jobs and contracts, problems and solutions Future projectuality and one’s professional identity 1 2 3 4 5 CLUSTER 3 The original family, similarities and differences
RESULTS Typologies of the Elementary Context (E. C. ): CLUSTER 1 – Educational Background üRelation with the studying üVocational guidance/choosing criteria üHigh school and university üPast and present: researching continuity and consistency üMarketability and usefulness of one’s own degree: ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ degrees GS, man, ‘typical’, aged 27, engineering degree (strong) “My present life is quite consistent with my expectations, even with the expectations I had during my university studies. . Maybe even better. ” LT, man, ’ typical’, aged 32, psychology degree (weak) “Now I am quite far from my expectations, in fact I would have liked to work as a psychologist; I would have liked to help somebody else. Today, on the contrary, I have few opportunities to speak and to have relations with people, so, my job is quite far from my expectations. ”
RESULTS Typologies of the Elementary Context (E. C. ): CLUSTER 2 – Atypical jobs and contracts, problems and solutions üAtypical contracts üProblems related to atypical contracts MM, man, atypical (fixed term), aged 30, law degree (weak), single, journalist at a newspaper “In my opinion, an atypical contract is a contract under which, at its expiry date, you can go home even if you have been working for four years in a company, rather than being invited to go home even for reasons that are different from those applied to the open-ended employees …” üRepresentations of the new labour market AN, man, atypical (temporary), aged 31, economics degree (strong), with partner, purchasing and accounts payable employee in a big multinational company “The labour market offers nothing and the situation we live is a real blackmail. I mean that if there is nothing and you are offered a little then you will have to take what you can and this is wrong, according to me. If I could I would refuse this situation but I am perfectly aware of the fact that if I refused there would be thousands of people who would accept it. ” üPossible solutions
RESULTS Typologies of the Elementary Context (E. C. ): CLUSTER 3 – The original family, similarities and differences üThe past everyday life in own’s own family üOne’s parents relationship with the labour market (a comparison between past and present) üThe role of the socio-economical status in changing representation of the new labour market AB, man, atypical , aged 30, biology degree, middle-low status “We were born (me and my parents) in very different periods. When they were young, they could find a job, I mean that you did not have to think to what to do when you finished your studies, and there was job for everybody. . . We can say that there is some job, today, but this is completely different from what I would like to have, I mean that you can have a fixed-term job, with an atypical contract, which only meets your present needs, which is not a job that makes you live with it. ” üBalancing work and family life (in women) LM, woman, typical, aged 29, foreign languages degree with partner, she manages advertising spaces for a newspaper, her mother was employed (clerk) in a big company “I can see many things that are similar to my mother’s life since she also had hard working hours and she worked far from home. So, I can understand what she lived (…) I can find that I am like her. ”
RESULTS Typologies of the Elementary Context (E. C. ): CLUSTER 4 – Towards independence: a new home, a new family üThe achievement of autonomy and independence üThe new ‘home’ GV, man, atypical (fixed-term), aged 28, economics degree (strong), con partner, bank clerk, he lives with his parents “I can see myself married in a house which I will keep tight, hardly. One of my target is buying a house, since it is very important, it will mark your future life but it twill also offer you the opportunity to be autonomous, to live your life, to have your family. So it is not easy, it is not like buying a pair of shoes and it is something that will change you a lot. ” üThe emotional and economic support offered by the original family AN, man, atypical (temporary), aged 31, economics degree with partner, employee in a big multinational company “My parents are my welfare! Last year they bought me a flat and. . . I would be a poor fellow without them! When I am in troubles, they can help me. I would be nothing without them and this is absurd. It is absurd that, today, not only those who have a job like this live in this way but also that a man or a woman cannot be protected. ”
RESULTS Typologies of the Elementary Context (E. C. ): CLUSTER 5 – Future projectuality and one’s professional identity üThe work: how to change and improve it TM, man, atypical (stage), 26, economics degree (strong), single, trainee in a big publishing company “I hope to succeed in, to experience something interesting (. . . ) to have the opportunity to change. I would like to make career, I mean that I would like to have the opportunity to setup my work, to do the same job but at a higher level or I would like to have a business of my own. . . ” üComplementary feelings of hope and fear related to the future üThe macro-social context: ties and resources for one’s fulfilment
RESULTS Representations and meanings of work and future ► Even if problematic, work is the key-element of the interviewed people’s present life: it is recognised as the basic step for the creation of one’s future life. AS, woman, atypical , aged 28, psychology degree “Living and having your own projects without a job is really hard; so working is essential from that point of view. In this very time, work helps me feeling an independent adult, somehow. So, everything is linked to the fact of earning one’s living, moving away from home, living one’s own life. ”
RESULTS Representations and meanings of work and future ► Instrumental and symbolic meanings of work ED, man, typical, aged 32, law degree “Working is a necessary evil for me; I mean that you must work. I am undecided about the necessary evil and a huge ATM …your bank-note starts going out at nine o’clock in the morning and you can start drawing your bank-note after eight hours or something like that. ” MT, woman, typical, aged 33, economics degree “I mean that if you are not satisfied with your work, you can loose an important part, and even work is a part of our identity. Many people could not have their professional fulfilment and they could live all the same, but I think that they have lost something … fulfilment of herself. One’s identity is also made of her satisfaction with her work. ”
RESULTS Representations and meanings of work and future ► Representations of the future (hopes and fears) seem to be influenced by the original family’s economic background (capital) TM man, atypical, aged 26, economics degree, high status “I hope to succeed in, to try to, to get interesting experience and I hope to keep my curiosity to make experience and have the opportunity to satisfy such curiosity and then, in the future, to have the opportunity to change, to do big changes to make something different, even much different. ” “I am afraid of not succeeding in achieving such changes, not being able to follow my curiosity or loosing my enthusiasm. I do not know which is the worst thing between loosing curiosity/enthusiasm or not to be able to satisfy your desire for any reasons whatsoever and being forced to do a job you are not satisfied with. ” AN, man, atypical, aged 31, economics degree, middle-low status “I hope that things will go better in the future, even because it could not go worse than this, I could only sleep on the road. . . (. . . ) Now I have this job, maybe I will be fed up with being temporary in the next three years or I could become used to it. . . ” “Look, I do not think anymore of being afraid, I do not want to imagine a future like this. Since I am optimist, I do not want to see any fear. I think of today’s life. ”
RESULTS My future between obligations and opportunities ► An open-ended job, not ‘any-job’ is the key factor to reach autonomy AN, man, atypical , aged 31, economics degree “I am not completely autonomous and I am not completely independent. At present, I do not have a real job. I need a real job to be autonomous and independent, I need an open-ended job. ” ► The atypical situation seems to be particularly difficult for MEN GV, man, atypical , aged 28, economics degree “I do not think I am autonomous because I cannot live alone or with my girlfriend. I need much more money than I have to live alone and I will continue to be angry and to be in search for autonomy until I could not find some more money”
RESULTS Associations with the verb ‘TO HOPE’ Stability (open-ended contract, salary, guarantee, job, to find) Ambivalent feelings related to future (dream, anxiety, hope, to succeed) Need to be supported (mother, together) Family area (family, child, familiar) To find a better job (to change, new, autonomous, better)
DISCUSSION AND ‘CONCLUSIONS’ Young people seem to have absorbed the representation of an uncertain society and of a difficult labour market ► Atypical jobs are becoming ‘the Job’, the rule ► The stability of work is a key factor to get into the adult life ► The ecological factors network may influence the representations of work and future § Men and women seem to consider and live atypicalness differently (role expectations) § The type of degree changes the way in which you may interpret your present job condition and your future § Family (and its cultural and economical capital) is a strong protective factor § The atypical work condition tends to widen and emphasize the starting economical differences (it’s more difficult both to plan and face the future) ►
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