The sociological analyses of contemporary society mostly emphasize its liquid and flexible character, which provides new opportunities, but also threats, on both the macro and individual level. The incoherence of the present times could, however, also be perceived as the interference of various social orders that have been described by scholars as “premodernity,” “modernity” and “postmodernity.” In Poland, these tensions are particularly acute because of the collision of the regimes of modernity, postmodernity and elements of traditional culture that are still more visible than in the West. The aim of this paper is to present the relationships between two of the above-mentioned orders: modernity and postmodernity in the sphere of work, with reference to the biographical structure of an individual’s experience. An empirical example of these tensions is demonstrated in the autobiographical story of Piotr, a freelance business psychologist. The article’s first part focuses on the theoretical framework and methodology that were applied while investigating the biographical manifestations of the clashes between these orders. The second part includes a detailed analysis of the narrator’s life story, linking the psychological and sociological perspectives. Furthermore, two meanings of work and their implications for the given case are presented. Finally, the analyzed interview is discussed in a broader perspective, in comparison to other cases.

No abstract

Referring to a set of narrative interviews being professional biographical interviews with managers and professionals, I would like to present some definite typically patterned professional careers. The course and main phases of the settling into corporate order are identified and described with Fritz Schütze’s analytical tools and categories. The main focus of interest is not only biographical processes of growing-up in corporation, that is the sphere of cognitive, normative and emotional references, but also their relation to the institutional sphere. Simultaneously, I intend therefore to address two types of questions: what type of biographical experiences are we dealing with: biographical plan (an autonomous, self-reflexive and intentional process of planning one’s own actions), institutional pattern (a normative-based process of meeting institutional expectations), trajectory (a suffering-involved process of uncontrollably being subject to external circumstances), metamorphosis (a surprise-driven creative process of change); and what are the ways a biography reflects corporate order, that is, some definite type of the social order in late capitalism, and the related processes of Europeanization, globalization, multiculturalism and transculturalism, as well as the neoliberal economic order?

No abstract