Precarious work in the awareness and experience of Polish, Czech and Slovak academic youth from selected seats of learning mgr Piotr Czakon

Precarious work in the awareness and experience of Polish, Czech and Slovak academic youth from selected seats of learning Self-introduction I am doctoral student in sociology at the University of Silesia in Katowice; My scientific interests revolve around some key issues of contemporary societies - civic engagement, changes in labour markets and global economy, the outlook for young-adults. PhD dissertation entitled “Precarious work in the awareness and experience of academic youth from the perspective of socio-cultural capital. A comparative study of Polish, Czech and Slovak young generation from selected seats of learning”

Background to the study Precarious work in the awareness and experience of Polish, Czech and Slovak academic youth from selected seats of learning Background to the study Over the last few years almost all European countries have to deal with the consequences of the financial crisis of 2007; The global recession has left a lasting mark on many aspects of social life (economy, banking system, social policy, labour market); This is why many researchers and social commentators drew attention to the issue of lousy working perspectives of young adults (people up to 35 years old); According to statistical and research institutes (ex. eurostat, World Bank, OECD data), a high percentage of European young adults suffer from different forms of work vulnerability; The most important work-related issues are unemployment, underemployment, temporary employment, part-time employment, non-standard forms of work and lack of social security; Young adults are a social category that is especially prone to problems in the labour market; Academic youth is a specific social category. They are mostly young people learning with the intention of enhancing their labour market prospects in order to achieve high-profile job positions

Theoretical framework Precarious work in the awareness and experience of Polish, Czech and Slovak academic youth from selected seats of learning Theoretical framework According to a synthetic view based on respectable sources I define work as a significant form of activity that leads to fulfillment of important values (such as stability, self actualization, identity) and provides economic resources; Because of globalization-induced processes the idea of work underwent some changes; Researchers and scholars are describing the economic transition from fordism to post-fordism, increasing scale of flexible working arrangements, technological unemployment, expansion of the sharing economy and the gig economy; All mentioned trends seem to undermine the “traditional” textbook vision of work; From my point of view, Guy Standing’s the term “precariat”, is currently the most suitable word that embraces all changes in work; Undoubtedly contribution of Standing’s concept is that his observations popularized the issue of lousy work and shed a new light on problems related with it; This is why I rather see precariat as a kind of umbrella term that encompasses several shortages which may be associated with underprivileged working conditions. The second main theoretical component of my research is the concept of socio-cultural capital. I perceive socio-cultural capital as a kind of resource, an individual advantage that is inherited from one’s parents that enables one to achieve better positions

Methodology Three main theses: Precarious work in the awareness and experience of Polish, Czech and Slovak academic youth from selected seats of learning Methodology Three main theses: Students from selected East-Central European countries attach different level of precariousness to the work reality in their countries depending on the differences in labour markets; A very important dependent variable (the factor of precarial awareness and work experience) will be associated with the socio-cultural capital of young adults; The higher the level of socio-cultural capital that students represent, the lower the level of precarial awareness or work experience they evince.

Methodology Research questions (1/3): 1. Do students think about work? Precarious work in the awareness and experience of Polish, Czech and Slovak academic youth from selected seats of learning Methodology Research questions (1/3): 1. Do students think about work? Do occupationally inactive students often think about the necessity of the activation of work in the near future? Do occupationally inactive students feel anxiety over the perspective of their transition into the labour market? Do work-experienced students feel satisfaction with their previous places of work? Do work-experienced students feel anxiety over the plausible perspective of another job search?

Methodology Research questions (2/3): Precarious work in the awareness and experience of Polish, Czech and Slovak academic youth from selected seats of learning Methodology Research questions (2/3): 2. How do academic youth define work in the context of the parameters of precarious work? Do students perceive work as an activity that enables them to build an identity or rather only as a source of income? Do students associate work with the prospect of individual social mobility – a chance to achieve a better position in the social structure? Do students value flexible working forms? Do students make a distinction between the core and peripheral labour market in their descriptions of work reality? Do students value the right to have labour representation? Do students feel ambiguity between the labour market requirements and their own family plans? Are students afraid of having inadequate skills for the requirements of the labour market?

Methodology Research questions (3/3): Precarious work in the awareness and experience of Polish, Czech and Slovak academic youth from selected seats of learning Methodology Research questions (3/3): 3. What reasons prompted students to undertake higher education – instrumental or autotelic? 4. Do the majority of students perceive the problem of work flexibility and insecurity as a factor that may have a potentially destructive impact on their life and their level of wealth? 5. How do students who attach a high level of instability to the labour market try to accommodate that precarious reality? 6. Do students that admit to suffering from the problem of precarious work tend to identify with some kind of broader community – people who share the same place in the social structure?

A survey questionnaire Precarious work in the awareness and experience of Polish, Czech and Slovak academic youth from selected seats of learning A survey questionnaire

A survey questionnaire Precarious work in the awareness and experience of Polish, Czech and Slovak academic youth from selected seats of learning A survey questionnaire

Selected seacts of learning Precarious work in the awareness and experience of Polish, Czech and Slovak academic youth from selected seats of learning Selected seacts of learning Katowice Zabrze Ostrava Olomouc Banská Bystrica Nitra

Precarious work in the awareness and experience of Polish, Czech and Slovak academic youth from selected seats of learning Reference books Jan Aart Scholte, Globalizacja. Krytyczne wprowadzenie, Wyższa Szkoła Zarządzania i Marketingu w Sosnowcu, Oficyna Wydawnicza „Humanitas”, Sosnowiec 2006. Jeremy Rifkin, Koniec pracy. Schyłek siły roboczej na świecie i początek ery postronkowej, Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, Wrocław 2003. Sławomir Sierakowski, Historia kryzysu i kryzys historii, w: Julian Kutyła i in. (red.), Kryzys. Przewodnik Krytyki Politycznej, Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, Warszawa 2009. Alicja Malina, Wczesna dorosłość w cyklu życia człowieka. Współczesne problemy z realizacją zadań rozwojowych młodych dorosłych, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Kazimierza Wielkiego, Bydgoszcz 2014. Guy Standing, Prekariat. Nowa niebezpieczna klasa, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa 2014. Kazimierz W. Frieske, Dwa oblicza rynku pracy, [w:] Andrzej Kojder (red.), Jedna Polska? Dawne i nowe zróżnicowania społeczne, Polska Akademia Nauk. Komitet Socjologii, Warszawa 2007. Henryk Januszek, Jan Sikora, Socjologia pracy, Akademia Ekonomiczna w Poznaniu, Poznań 1998. Jan Szczepański, Uwagi o przedmiocie i zagadnieniach socjologii pracy, w: Bronisław Biegeleisen-Żalezwoski i in., Jak pracuje człowiek. Z badań polskich psychologów, socjologów i ekonomistów, Książka i Wiedza, Warszawa 1961. Kazimierz Krzysztofek, Marek S. Szczepański, Zrozumieć rozwój. Od społeczeństw tradycyjnych do informacyjnych, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, Katowice 2005. Juliusz Gardawski, Teorie struktury społecznej a świat pracy, w: Juliusz Gardawski (red.), Polacy pracujący a kryzys fordyzmu, Wydawnictwo naukowe SCHOLAR, Warszawa 2009. Zygmunt Bauman, Praca, konsumpcjonizm i nowi ubodzy, Wydawnictwo WAM, Kraków 2006. Piotr Sztompka, Kapitał społeczny. Teoria przestrzeni międzyludzkiej, Wydawnictwo Znak, Kraków 2016. Katarzyna Growiec, Kapitał społeczny. Geneza i społeczne konsekwencje, Wydawnictwo Szkoły Wyższej Psychologii Społecznej „Academica”, Warszawa 2011. Adam Bartoszek, Kapitał społeczno-kulturowy młodej inteligencji wobec wymogów rynku, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, Katowice 2003.