Principal Investigator: Daniela Peluso
Project Dates: 2013 – present
Funding: School of Anthropology & Conservation Small Research Grant
Are you a high-skilled worker living in East Kent? If so we welcome you to participate in our project by kindly completing our online survey and signing up to be contacted regarding a follow-up interview. Eligible participants will be provided a link to a prize draw for a £25 Amazon gift certificate.
The grant allows Dr. Peluso, in collaboration with Jessica Lucas (MA Visual Anthropology, MSc Global Health), to explore how precarity is experienced in the workplace by high-skilled labourers in East Kent. The idea of the precariat, as currently described in the social science literature refers to an ongoing condition of job insecurity and uncertainty and is widely associated with migrant and low-skilled populations. One recent BBC news report, for instance, estimated that a rising 15% of British society is part of the precariat class. Corporations, institutions and other organisations, particularly in conditions of economic recession and neoliberal market reform, are increasingly passing risk onto employees through such mechanisms as short-term contracts, reduced benefits, increased expectations and the possibility of downsizing and redundancy. Precarity is thus a significant and instrumental social, political and economic condition affecting occupational identities and careers across all skill sets.
East Kent is a ripe location for this study since although Kent is one of Englands least deprived counties, areas in East Kent are among Englands 20% most deprived regions. East Kents working population is equally spread across occupation types and similar to many parts of the UK and Europe, it has experienced periodic waves of unemployment, business closures and industry decline (Kent City Council 2011, 2012).
We invite the participation of individuals to discuss how various forms of work-related precarity – as destabilizing processes characterized by individual and collective experiences of, and responses to, abrupt change, uncertainties, volatility, and vulnerability – are extended to, experienced, coped with and talked about. We will employ work history and life history methodology entailing multiple interviews over time, socio-demographic survey data collection and analysis and key interviews with regional economists and business managers of large organisations. Research ethics are based on prior informed consent and the anonymity of individuals and organisations.
If you are interested in participating in the project, please complete the online survey and sign up to be contacted regarding the follow-up interview. We also welcome you to email us at KentAnthropology@gmail.com.
We use Qualtrics via Kent Business School (KBS) as our survey tool provider.