A Comparative Perspective of Precarious Living Conditions: Subjective Determinants of Household Strategies in Four Countries
| Responsable du projet | Monica Budowski |
| Partenaire |
Christian Suter
Peter Farago |
| Résumé |
Recent research concludes that in Western countries more people than
expected move into and out of poverty and constitute a fluctuating
population group in precarious living conditions and vulnerable to
poverty. These developments have commonalities with situations in
'less developed' countries, where social welfare is less
institutionalized and its provision level lower. Research in
Western countries suggests that some people deal better with this
situation than others. It further suggests that a certain degree of
'stability' (temporal, social, financial, material, and personal)
regarding structural opportunities perceived to plan life is
important; furthermore personal and household assets are required
to conceive household strategies and deal with risk. This research
addresses the following questions: how do people in precarious
living conditions deal with their situation? What objective and
subjective factors influence their household strategies? Do these
factors vary according to different levels of social security, the
opportunities on the labour market and the household situations?
The countries studied-Switzerland, Spain, Costa Rica and
Chile-differ according to level of welfare, combinations of labour
market structure (formal and informal economy) and the importance
of family ties and social networks. The study builds on information
about perceptions and interpretations of individuals of approx. 75
households in Switzerland and 25 households in the other three
countries gathered by means of qualitative in-depth interviews in
cooperation with the partner universities Universidad
Pública de Navarra, Spain, Universidad Católica de
Temuco, Chile and Universidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica. The
sampled households are in similar situations of financial
precariousness around or just above the poverty line. Change on the
households' perspectives of their situation is captured by the
two-wave-design over a twelve to fifteen-month period of time. The
project aims at obtaining a profound insight into theoretical
elements important for conceiving individual and household
strategies and identifying their influencing factors. The
innovative aspects and originality of the study are: (i) the
specific population group ('precarious prosperity'), (ii) the
systematic assessment of subjective perceptions and interpretations
of socio-structural situations, (iii) the role of informal social
networks in dealing with detrimental events within different
country-level opportunity structures, (iv) the gender and household
perspective (v) the methodological approach (comparative,
qualitative and two-waves). |
| Mots-clés |
precariousness, poverty, gender, vulnerability, household strategies, precarious prosperity, social inequality, comparative research, qualitative research |
| Page internet | http://p3.snf.ch/project-116605 |
| Type de projet | Recherche fondamentale |
| Domaine de recherche | Sociologie |
| Source de financement | FNS |
| Etat | Terminé |
| Début de projet | 1-10-2007 |
| Fin du projet | 30-9-2011 |
| Contact | Christian Suter |