Educational Problems and Their Importance in the Context of Young Poles Experiencing Precariousness

Jacek Burski

doi:10.18778/1733-8069.19.4.04

Authors

Jacek Burski University of Wrocław, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9987-2420

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8069.19.4.04

Keywords:

educational problems, precariousness, sociology of biography, class mobility

Abstract

The article focuses on exploring the relationship between experiencing educational problems in the course of life and precariousness in further professional career of young Poles. My primary interests are concentrated around the biographical experience in the spheres of education (especially in the context of young Polish workers undertaking studies) and work. I examine how the educational problems that were present at different educational levels may affect life stories and how they could be linked with the struggling on the labor market, and how they eventually led to increasing exposure toward precarious conditions as well as, finally, the potential of trajectory of suffering.

In the analysis, I am using biographical narrative interview conducted with Julian, a young precarious worker who failed to obtain a university degree. My main argumentation is that educational problems he had faced during his studies are in complex loop with his precarious situation on the labor market and led him to experience subsequent phases of the trajectory of suffering. On the other hand, I examine the role of the myth of university degree as a generational driver of upward class mobility.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Jacek Burski, University of Wrocław, Poland

PhD in sociology, assistant professor in the Institute of Sociology of the University of Wroclaw. His main interests include the biographical sociology and sociology of work.

References

Adamczyk Adam, Jarecki Wojciech (2008), Szacowanie wewnętrznej stopy zwrotu inwestycji w wyższe wykształcenie, “Gospodarka Narodowa”, vol. 11–12(228), s. 77–93.
Google Scholar

Bourdieu Pierre (1985), The Forms of Capital, [in:] John G. Richardson (ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, Westport: Greenwood, pp. 241–258.
Google Scholar

Buchinsky Moshe (2001), Quantile regression with sample selection: Estimating women’s return to education in the U.S., “Empirical Economics”, vol. 26(1), pp. 87–113, https://doi.org/10.1007/S001810000061
Google Scholar

Buchner-Jeziorska Anna (2011), Studia wyższe – bez szans na sukces?!, “Folia Sociologica”, no. 39, pp. 17–31.
Google Scholar

Butler Judith (2009), Frames of war: when is life grievable?, London: Verso.
Google Scholar

Carneiro Pedro, Heckman James J., Vytlacil Edward J. (2011), Estimating Marginal Returns to Education, “American Economic Review”, vol. 101(6), pp. 2754–2781, https://doi.org/10.1257/AER.101.6.2754
Google Scholar

Carvajal Manuel J., Popovici Ioana (2020), A Theoretical Framework for Estimating the Rate of Return to a Pharmacy Education Anywhere, “Pharmacy”, vol. 8(3), 162, https://doi.org/10.3390/PHARMACY8030162
Google Scholar

Castel Robert, Dörre Klaus, Bescherer Peter (2009), Prekarität, Abstieg, Ausgrenzung: die soziale Frage am Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts, Frankfurt am Main: Campus.
Google Scholar

Domański Henryk (2018), Wpływ wykształcenia na rozkład zarobków w Polsce w latach 1988–2013, “Ekonomista”, no. 1, pp. 7–24.
Google Scholar

Gaupp Nora (2013), School-to-Work Transitions – Findings from Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches in Youth Transition Research, “Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research”, vol. 14(2), https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-14.2.1895
Google Scholar

Ikeler Peter (2019), Precarity’s Prospect: Contingent Control and Union Renewal in the Retail Sector, “Critical Sociology”, vol. 45(4–5), pp. 501–516, https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920517749706
Google Scholar

Kalleberg Arne L., Vallas Steven P. (eds.) (2017), Precarious work (Research in the Sociology of Work, Volume 31), Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited.
Google Scholar

Kaźmierska Kaja (2016), Wywiad narracyjny – technika i pojęcie analityczne, [in:] Katarzyna Waniek, Renata Dopierała (eds.), Biografia i wojna. Metoda biograficzna w badaniu procesów społecznych, Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, pp. 61–72.
Google Scholar

Kaźmierska Kaja (2019), Winners and Losers of the Process of Transformation as an Etic Category versus Emic Biographical Perspective, “Qualitative Sociology Review”, vol. 15(4), pp. 238–266, http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.15.4.11
Google Scholar

Kaźmierska Kaja, Waniek Katarzyna (2020), Autobiograficzny wywiad narracyjny: metoda, technika, analiza, Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego.
Google Scholar

McMahon Walter (2018), The total return to higher education: Is there underinvestment for economic growth and development?, “The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance”, vol. 70, pp. 90–111, https://doi.org/10.1016/J.QREF.2018.05.005
Google Scholar

Moroń Dorota (2016), Wpływ przemian demograficznych na szkolnictwo wyższe w Polsce. Studia Ekonomiczne, “Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego w Katowicach”, no. 290, pp. 107–116.
Google Scholar

Motakef Mona, Wimbauer Christine (2019), Precarity of Life Arrangements: A Perspective on Precarious Working and Living Conditions Expanded by Recognition, “Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research”, vol. 20(3), https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-20.3.3222
Google Scholar

Mrozowicki Adam (2011), Coping with social change: life strategies of workers in Poland’s new capitalism, Leuven: Leuven University Press.
Google Scholar

Mrozowicki Adam (2016), Normalisation of Precariousness? Biographical Experiences of Young Workers in the Flexible Forms of Employment in Poland, “Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej”, vol. XII, no. 2, pp. 94–112.
Google Scholar

Mrozowicki Adam, Czarzasty Jan (eds.) (2020), Oswajanie niepewności: studia społeczno-ekonomiczne nad młodymi pracownikami sprekaryzowanymi, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar.
Google Scholar

Muszyński Karol (2019), Polityka regulacji zatrudnienia w Polsce: kryzys ekonomiczny a destandaryzacja stosunków pracy, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar.
Google Scholar

Pike Kenneth L. (1967), Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structures of Human Behavior, The Hague: Mouton.
Google Scholar

Polanyi Karl (2001), The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, Boston: Beacon Press.
Google Scholar

Psacharopoulos George, Patrinos Harry A. (2018), Returns to investment in education: a decennial review of the global literature, “Education Economics”, vol. 26(5), pp. 445–458, https://doi.org/10.1080/09645292.2018.1484426
Google Scholar

Riemann Gerhard (2003), A Joint Project Against the Backdrop of a Research Tradition: An Introduction into Doing Biographical Research, “Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research”, vol. 4(3), https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-4.3.666
Google Scholar

Schütze Fritz (2008), Biography analysis on the empirical base of autobiographical narratives: how to analyse autobiographical narrative interviews, “European Studies on Inequalities and Social Cohesion”, vol. 1/2(part I), pp. 153–242 and vol. 3/4(part II), pp. 5–77.
Google Scholar

Schütze Fritz (2014), Autobiographical Accounts of War Experiences. An Outline for the Analysis of Topically Focused Autobiographical Texts – Using the Example of the ‘Robert Rasmus’ Account in Studs Terkel’s Book, ‘The Good War, “Qualitative Sociology Review”, vol. 10(1), pp. 224–283.
Google Scholar

Schütze Fritz, Riemann Gerhard (1991), “Trajectory” as a Basic Theoretical Concept for Analyzing Suffering and Disorderly Social Processes, [in:] David Maines (ed.), Social Organization and Social Processses. Essays in Honor of Anselm Strauss, New York: Aldine de Gruyter, pp. 333–357.
Google Scholar

Stewart Paul, Shanahan Genevieve, Smith Mark (2020), Individualism and Collectivism at Work in an Era of Deindustrialization: Work Narratives of Food Delivery Couriers in the Platform Economy, “Frontiers in Sociology”, vol. 5, 49, https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.00049
Google Scholar

Szarfenberg Ryszard (2016), Prekarność, prekaryjność, prekariat – krótkie wprowadzenie, http://rszarf.ips.uw.edu.pl/pdf/prekariat3.5.pdf (accessed: 21.09.2021).
Google Scholar

Treichel Bärbel, Schwelling Birgit (2003), Extended Processes of Biographical Suffering and the Allusive Expression of Deceit in an Autobiographical Narrative Interview with a Female Migrant Worker in Germany, “Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research”, vol. 4(3), https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-4.3.672
Google Scholar

Urbański Jarosław (2014), Prekariat i nowa walka klas: przeobrażenia współczesnej klasy pracowniczej i jej form walki, Warszawa: Instytut Wydawniczy Książka i Prasa.
Google Scholar

Waniek Katarzyna (2016), Potencjały bezładu i cierpienia w biografiach młodych kobiet wchodzących w świat sztuki i medycyny, “Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej”, vol. XII(2), pp. 114–144.
Google Scholar

Wu Cheng-Ta, Tang Chia-Wei (2020), The Impact of the Expansion of Higher Education on the Rate of Return to Higher Education in Taiwan, [in:] Guorui Fan, Thomas S. Popkewitz (eds.), Handbook of Education Policy Studies: School/University, Curriculum, and Assessment, vol. 2, Singapore: Springer, pp. 137–147, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8343-4_7
Google Scholar