https://toarcheio.org To Archeio project site Mon, 20 Apr 2020 14:21:31 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 https://toarcheio.org/items/constructing-work-and-subjectivities-in-precarious-conditions-psycho-discursive-practices-in-young-peoples-interviews-in-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:42 +0000 http://arc.local/items/constructing-work-and-subjectivities-in-precarious-conditions-psycho-discursive-practices-in-young-peoples-interviews-in-greece/ Continued]]> Precarity is becoming the paradigmatic description of young people’s work conditions in crisis-ridden Greece, but also in other European countries. Focusing on interview data on the work experiences of young adults (18-26 years old), in urban centres of Greece, this study attempts to explore the ways in which informants account for working in precarious conditions and construct agency and subjectivity within these ways of accounting. The analysis drawing on insights from critical discursive social psychology indicates that participants construct precarious work conditions as widespread and banal a) by treating precarious work as a sine qua non condition of youth employment, b) by considering precarious work as an inherent trait of the Greek job-market, c) by considering precarious work as a necessary step on a (biographical) path leading to the desired and/or appropriate job, or d) by adopting a “there is no other alternative” accounting, representing precarious job conditions as the only alternative to unemployment. The analysis also points out the ways in which participants orient themselves to a dilemma of stake and accountability, being concerned to position themselves as effortful subjects, while they are rhetorically constructing the banal regime of precarious labour. The discussion considers the need to bring into the scope of social and political psychology the specific nuances of precarious labour.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/youth-policy-in-austerity-europe-the-case-of-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:27 +0000 http://arc.local/items/youth-policy-in-austerity-europe-the-case-of-greece/ Continued]]> This article addresses young people’s declining power in the Greek labour market due to the implementation of sweeping austerity policies and the consequent expansion of youth precarious employment and unemployment since the first bailout agreement in 2010. The analysis concludes that the crisis has acted as a catalyst for worsening of the employment situation of young people. Nevertheless, the social and employment disadvantage for youth has strong historical roots and it can be only partially explained by the crisis, as long before the crisis precarious forms of employment and unemployment rates were already higher than the adult levels. Finally, the article concludes that precarious youth employment and high youth unemployment levels are two sides of the same coin of poverty and social exclusion risk.

]]>