2024-2028 | FWO PhD project
People without paid employment are a significant share of working-age adults in Europe. Yet, the jobless have been remarkably absent from class analysis. This is problematic, as it risks overlooking crucial aspects in which inequalities unfold. Meanwhile, social class schemes have lost their prominent position as a concept for studying social stratification. However, class might still be a relevant framework as it stresses structures of social power. I argue that joblessness might be envisioned as a meaningful relation of exclusion on the labour market and, hence, a structural class position of relative disempowerment in society. First, I assess if joblessness is indeed an exclusion from employment, and how this varies across countries and socio-demographic characteristics. Next, I develop a framework for linking this exclusion to disempowerment within the labour market, making use of precarious employment as a conceptual tool. Further, I will assess how the life chances of jobless people are affected by macro-structural embedding, comparing welfare state policies and activation measures. I will also look at symbolic structures, assessing how welfare attitudes in the larger public might structure processes of social exclusion of the jobless. Last, I will study movements in and out of employment of the jobless, constructing a sociological model of labour market transitions. A novel framework on class and non-work will shed new light on patterns of exclusion and stratification.
