TRANSFORMATION OF THE (IDEA) OF WORK: FROM THEORETICAL DISCUSSIONS OF NEW CAPITALISM TO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN THE CROATIAN POST-TRANSITION CONTEXT Cover Image

Transformacija (ideje) rada: od teorijskih rasprava o novom kapitalizmu do kvalitativnih istraživanja u hrvatskom posttranzicijskom kontekstu
TRANSFORMATION OF THE (IDEA) OF WORK: FROM THEORETICAL DISCUSSIONS OF NEW CAPITALISM TO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN THE CROATIAN POST-TRANSITION CONTEXT

Author(s): Ozren Biti, Mislav Žitko
Subject(s): Anthropology, Sociology, Social Theory, Sociology of the arts, business, education, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku
Keywords: transformation of work; technological determinism; precarization; flexibilization; ethnography of work; moral economy; Ulrich Beck; Richard Sennett;

Summary/Abstract: This article off ers an overview of theoretical arguments about the transformation of work, based on the notions of fl exibilization and precarization that have recently become prominent in academic and public discourse. On the one hand, a common core of arguments off ered by theorists such as Beck, Sennett and Bauman is highlighted, and, on the other, attention is drawn to interpretative defi ciencies in what can roughly be classifi ed – in line with Doogan’s reasoning – as “post-Marxist discourse”. This is done by providing empirically based insights that call into question the soundness of some of the most signifi cant claims from this corpus of literature, still dominant in the leftist academic tradition. An attempt is made to describe the transformation of work in Croatia in the (post)-transition period, starting with an overview of Croatian sociological research. The paper then presents a selection of ethnographic contributions to the fi eld, and shows that quantitative aspects of the transformation of work (and/or the labor market) may be augmented by a broad spectrum of qualitative research. It is precisely in this interplay between sociology and cultural anthropology/ethnology that a more meaningful analysis of the transformation of work in the Croatian post-transition society can be performed; an analysis that would provide a better connection between the world of work and the world of life.

  • Issue Year: 54/2017
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 149-167
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Croatian
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