Engaging with the Labour Market : Experiences of (in)Dignity in Precarity

Based on data from the cross-national comparative project INDIGMA (Experiences of (In)dignity at the Margins) and the stories of 18 unemployed people living in the towns of Guingamp (France), Nakskov (Denmark), and North Adams (USA), this presentation outlines the entangled and intimate experiences of (in)dignity when coping with job search and precarious jobs.

Unemployment shape how people put worth to themselves and their surroundings. In this way, experiences of (in)dignity are both deeply emotional as well as relying on the way people interpret and make sense of their experiences. We therefore propose to focus on the margins of employment (neither total exclusion nor true inclusion) to document the lived experience of labour market transformations in a detailed and dynamic way by following people whose feeling of dignity is under pressure in (at least) two important ways: 1) They are unemployed and therefore deemed worthless according to the norm of contributing to society through work. 2) they live in peripheral regions of their countries characterized by low av. income, loss of industries, many low wage jobs, and relatively high unemployment. In other words, places that are deemed less worthy in public debate while the people living there are left with a sense of abandonment.

While precarious tendencies influence labour market across the globe, this comparison will focus on how different supplies of job quality jobs shape the unemployment experience in deprived areas. Unemployed people aspire to find jobs that suit their level and profession but how are these trade-offs linked to local labour market opportunities as well as cultural narratives about give rise to a sense of worth? What is the link between either holding on to, or cultivating a sense of hope, in the face of industries shutting down and automation and digitalisation taking over parts of the labour market?