Precarity as a Biographical Problem? Young Workers Living with Precarity in Germany and Poland

Abstract

In the context of debates on the meanings of precarious employment, this article explores the varied ways young workers in Poland and Germany are managing precarity. Biographical narrative interviews with 123 young people revealed four different ways interviewees experienced precarity. These different approaches reflected varied ways in which interviewees were orientated to work, the meanings attributed by them to precarious employment and the material and cultural resources they possessed. It is argued that despite institutional differences, precarity in both countries is experienced similarly and represents a tendency to endure precarity and cope with it by individual means. Simultaneously, criticisms of precarity were more typical of young Poles than Germans. Cross-country variances were explained by the different mechanisms of institutional support for young workers and the greater belief in meritocracy in Germany.

Between consumption, accumulation and precarity: The psychic and affective practices of the female neoliberal spiritual subject

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The precariat pandemic: Exploitation overshadowed by COVID-19 and workers’ strategies in Poland

“…The presented empirical data collected in Poland make it possible to better understand the experience of precarious workers whose jobs are now a permanent feature of 21st century capitalism, particularly in semi-periphery and periphery countries. In both the literature and some of the statements made by respondents employed under precarious conditions and participating in our focus group interviews, precarious work is often treated as a temporary form of employment, a certain stage inscribed in the biography of young people and an issue related to the particular fate of an individual rather than to a generational or systemic challenge (Mrozowicki and Trappmann, 2020). In this approach, precarious employment may seem to be one's own choice, which is to be an expression of one's aspiration 'to greater freedom in their work and more exposure throughout their life course, for instance, travelling and staying in the creative industries rather than following a single and stable path of career development' (Wong and Au-Yeung, 2019).…”

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