Thursday 12 April 2012 at 16:00 - 17:30 WORK, EMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMIC LIFE 2


TRADE UNION Muffels, R.


Introduction


In the literature on inequality and the life course it is often argued that people gifted with favorable traits and endowments and better access to resources profit more from the fruits of economic growth and prosperity than the less gifted ones. This idea coined by Merton (1973) as cumulative advantage (CA) means that a favorable relative current position produces positive gains later on in life. The idea is supported in status maintenance and tournament models of inequality. It implies that inequality tend to grow or accumulate over time. Likewise, cumulative disadvantage (CDA) implies that people with a less favorable position endure career losses due to being exposed to life course risks emerging from the occurrence of adverse events and entry into disadvantaged statuses. The idea is also known as the Matthew effect or phrased in terms as 'the poor get poorer' and the 'rich get richer'. Empirical evidence on the existence of cumulative advantage or disadvantage over the career is mixed and few studies are based on evidence from long-running panel surveys. Even more scant are comparative studies viewing the impact of institutions and policies on cumulative advantage or disadvantage. The rising inequality and disadvantage already since the mid 1980s appears to have been progressed in the aftermath of the recent crisis.


Main research questions


The study concerns the position of the low skilled and whether they fare better or worse in times of crisis viewing their situation from the early 1990s up to the recent crisis. The main question addressed is to what extent the risks low skilled face are additive or accelerating in their effect on changes in levels of income and employment insecurity over their career. A second question concerns the issue whether these patterns differ across different institutional contexts or welfare state designs.


Data and methods


We will use the German (SOEP), British (BHPS) and Dutch panel data (LISS) covering some of the recent crisis years. We will use Bielby & Bielby's distinction into three models: cumulative advantage, cumulative disadvantage and continuous disadvantage for the empirical part to test whether disadvantage of the low skilled is growing or not over time and what the impact is of welfare state support. Single risk and multiple risk models will be developed and estimated using fixed effects panel regression methods to examine changes in income and employment security over time for the low skilled. The situation of the youth (16-24) will be compared with that of the people at working age (25-55) taking account of the impact of gender differences on peoples' careers.


Mackenzie, E. Identity Work in a UK Public Sector Organisation in Times of Austerity


'You need to get out and go and view the wide world. I ask people who have been here for years, why don't you go and try something else, learn more and actually achieve something? That way you begin to like yourself. That's why contractors are viewed with such suspicion, because they are strong enough to do it on their own. I always say to people we need to learn from them, you need to be self-sufficient so you can walk out there into the world and go wherever you want. It's that comfort thing. As soon as you are comfortable, you stop challenging yourself.' IT project manager - permanent employee


This article examines how permanent employees and contractors negotiate and manage their self-identity in relation to their work during a period of economic and employment insecurity in a UK public sector organisation. Drawing from Anthony Gidden's (1991) theoretical contribution, as well as more contemporary authors (Alvesson, 2010; Alvesson et al., 2008; Collinson, 2003), self-identity is conceptualised as fluid and reflexive 'identity work'. In this view people are continually involved in sense-making techniques in order to construct a positive sense of self drawing from their autobiographical self and the social space that they occupy. 'Identity work' is conceptualised here as a way in which people attempt to keep a career narrative going in increasingly uncertain economic and employment circumstances, both within the immediate organisation and throughout the job market. Through the course of a longitudinal ethnographic study, during which time a severance scheme was taking place in response to substantial budget cuts, discourses of career development, individual autonomy and social mobility were increasingly drawn upon by both permanent employees and contractors to construct new narratives of professional identity. This study uses observations, informal conversations and supplementary interviews taken over a four month period as a participant worker within a group of permanent and contracted IT project managers. Insight was


236 Newcastle University ROGER STEVENS 11 Tilburg University


Low Skill, Life Course Risks and Cumulative Disadvantage in Times of Crisis: A Comparative Study in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands


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