Metamorphosis of the world of work in biographical perspectives

A central strand of discourse in current social science research focuses on the rapid transformation of the worlds of work in advanced industrialised countries. Numerous diagnoses and interpretations of these transformation processes are available. Most of these are competing theoretical analyses or extrapolations from a macro-economic and macro-sociological perspective, with updates of labour-market developments elaborated into more or less (dis)comforting future scenarios. The question, however, of how the people affected actually experience, interpret and cope with these processes of change, i.e. the subjective views that can be identified for those concerned, has so far been only addressed by isolated studies of specific fields of occupation. For this reason, a team of researchers from Austria, Germany and Switzerland undertakes to follow up on this complex question, based on a well-proven joint research approach. For a research and publication venture launched in mid-2008 with considerable own contributions by the organisations involved in the present proposal, about 50 researchers from the three countries of Germany, Austria, Switzerland (D-A-CH) have contributed to assembling a rich kaleidoscope of sociological portraits of workers from a wide range of occupational backgrounds, designed to make comprehensible the similarities and differences of their experiences and interpretations of changes in the worlds of work. In the context of this proposal, the publication resulting from this project, to be published by Universitätsverlag Konstanz in Spring 2010, also serves as an important frame of reference for the planned empirical research, for the development of hypotheses and for testing and refining the methodological approach of the `understanding interview`. The present proposal aims at a more pronounced focus of the research on four key areas of the public sector in the socio-economically as well as culturally rather homogenous Bodensee region spanning all three countries (D-A- CH). The public sector has been particularly affected by the present changes but at the same time has not received sufficient attention by social-science research. To do so, the planned project takes innovative approaches of internationally comparative research in terms of both methodology and research practice. Based on four sectors, the links between social (occupational) position and the subjective perception and interpretation of change as well as their institutional `embeddedness` (Polanyi) in `welfare cultures` will be examined and described. A research strategy following Pierre Bourdieu has been adopted for the 36-month project, combining the methodology of the understanding interview with structural sociological interpretation.

The research project aimed at analyzing, from the perspective of the workers, the changes in work and employment in selected public services. Using an understanding approach the research team explored the opportunities and risks, the contradictions and conflicts experienced by the workers. The main focus was on how the affected persons perceive and interpret the developments in their working life. Municipal services, health care and postal services were selected for the research that was conducted in Germany, Switzerland and Austria in order to be able to analyze in a comparative way the slightly varied processes of economization and commercialization.To start with, the changes have affected people in public services as employees. The expiry of the status of civil servant, the emergence of insecurity, the changes in collective agreements and the altered personnel policies have resulted in a fundamental transformation of the employment relationship in particular for recently employed workers. This has gone furthest in postal services where income has been reduced considerably and employment security no longer exists. The employees are not only affected in their material interests but also regarding their social prestige and their occupational identity. The doctors, nurses, postal workers and municipal clerks attach great importance to the encounters with the citizens or patients and clients. However, now they have much less time for these. They consider problematic that they have less and less time for their actual work because, as in the case of doctors and nurses, tasks seen as not belonging to their occupational profile get out of hand or, as in the case of postal workers, restructuring has severely limited the encounters with the citizens.It may be argued that the reforms of local governments or the realignment of postal services have strengthened the workers service orientation. However, in many cases economization and commercialization impair workers ability to meet the needs of citizens and to further the common good. Workers agree in demanding that all citizens should have equal access to the services regardless of their purchasing power and their social position.Thus, the requirement to sell contradicts the aspiration to care. Workers experience strain when they are forced to act against their values.One of the most important findings of the research project is that the public service workers judge the changes not predominantly from their perspective as employees. Rather, their perceptions often more importantly include possible impairments of their occupational identity, the consequences of change for the social recognition they enjoy and, last but not least, the impacts on the quality of services and on the service provision to citizens.