This thesis engages deindustrialization as a lived process and applies the concepts of precarity as they relate to communities navigating processes of deindustrialization. Through ethnographic interviews and participant observation research conducted over the summer of 2017 I examine the lived experiences of circular migrant labourers and their significant others, who live in the former coal town of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, as they engage in strategies to keep their families in the community. I explore the continuities of industrialization, deindustrialization and labour; the history of work in the region; the present sacrifices that families make to stay in the communities; why families stay; and what they circular migrant labourers and their significant others imagine the future of the region will look like as they raise their children there. Further, as circular migrant labourers are away from home and their families for significant amounts of time, often at irregular schedules, I ask about the strategies that labourers and their families use to eke out a living in a marginalized community. I ask participants what it is like to have to leave the community for work; what it is like to stay behind while your significant other is away for work; what is it like to be home together; and what strategies are used to keep in touch. One such strategy is the use of internet communication technologies to negotiate physical and social distance. However, these technologies do not always necessarily make up for time spent away from loved ones. / Graduate / 2019-04-17

Background: Considering the growing popularity of gig organisations and the socioeconomic situation enabling precarity in this type of firms, there is the need to investigate potential gains and losses of this type of work contract from the organisational side.  Aim: The aim is to understand the benefits and losses platform organisations may face by offering precarious work conditions. Apart from economic influence, as on direct labour costs and staff turnover, there are expected to be cultural and social capital losses. Methodology: A qualitative study approach was chosen to discover new details and access the background of the employees. Six food deliverers from three different app-based food delivery companies in Sweden were interviewed to gain a comprehensive understanding of the problem. Findings: The empirical findings indicated that apart from decreasing direct labour costs and high turnover, offering precarious working conditions may deprive organisations of access to a qualified workforce and knowledge pool that the employees bring.

Many young people in the Stockholm metropolitan area struggle with accessing the formal housing market and are therefore relying on short-term, second-hand contracts. By drawing on ten semi-structured interviews this essay explores the second-hand tenant’s ability to feel a sense of belonging towards their home. The tenants are often unable to just be in their home and instead feel they need to conform to the landlord’s ideas of proper behaviour.Through the unequal power relations between landlord and tenant the tenants rarely feel at ease in their home. By using a phenomenological conceptualisation of home, I reason that home loses its ability to anchor a person’s sense self in the world and as a result the tenants become more isolated and detached.

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This master’s thesis investigates how freelancers experience job precarity and asymmetrical power relations which have been established within the media production industry as well as the relevance and value of coworking spaces providing a workspace with the possibilities of knowledge sharing, networking and community building, as a framework in order to challenge their precarious working conditions. Furthermore, the research aims at examining the participants’ experiences in a qualitative manner to explore those rather new concepts of freelancing and coworking spaces as previous research has failed to address the individual experiences of how freelancers deal with the nature of work in the media production industry.Situated in the context of the structural changes within media production towards a project-based nature of work and the decrease of permanent employment, freelancers are increasingly facing precarious working conditions such as uncertainty and instability.Applying the theory of structure and agency as theoretical framework, it is discussed to what extent freelancers are influenced by the established structures, rules and norms within the media production industry and how their agency is enabled within these structures.Using a qualitative research approach, this study is based on an investigation of the experiences and knowledge of eleven freelancers working in the media production industry and who are users of coworking spaces by the means of semi-structured interviews. In summary, this thesis reveals that the majority of the participants experience asymmetrical power relations and precarity to a high degree. Furthermore, freelancers who seek for communities in order to challenge their precarious working conditions, experience coworking spaces as highly valuable concept in order to increase the possibilities for their individual agency. Having investigated those rather novel concepts, this thesis serves as a starting point for examining further research on freelancers’ individual experiences of their working conditions.

[pt] A presente dissertação propõe analisar a política e as práticas de categorização e de classificação de sujeitos em movimento na busca de proteção, a partir da experiência brasileira de acolhimento aos refugiados e, mais especificamente ao fluxo venezuelano no Brasil. Para tanto, o trabalho parte de um debate teórico amplo, começando com a discussão sobre o Estado, fronteiras, limites e pertencimento, e da literatura crítica sobre refúgio e migração. Argumenta-se que a separação problemática entre um refugiado legítimo e um migrante econômico culmina na multiplicação de categorias que visam conter e controlar a mobilidade humana. Essa multiplicação de categorias expõe o desejo de dificultar o acesso ao refúgio, mas também reflete o reconhecimento da necessidade de proteção desses não refugiados. Essas relações entre proteção e regularização, gestão e controle, ficam claras quando olhamos para como o Brasil tem lidado com os fluxos migratórios em seu próprio território. Assim, à luz desse debate, compreendendo que o Brasil está inserido num contexto internacional mais amplo e, portanto, em práticas e normas que ultrapassam seus limites territoriais, o fluxo venezuelano é analisado como um estudo de caso que permite vislumbrar a complexidade e insuficiência dessas categorias da mobilidade na prática, e sua relação direta à manutenção da condição de precariedade e provisoriedade a que esses sujeitos estão submetidos. / [en] This dissertation proposes an analysis of the politics and practices of categorizing and classifying subjects on the move in search of protection, based on the Brazilian experience of welcoming refugees and, more specifically, the Venezuelan flow in Brazil. For this purpose, the research proceeds with a broad theoretical debate, starting with the discussion on the State, borders, limits and the sense of belonging, as well as engaging with the critical refugee and migration studies. It is argued that the problematic separation between a legitimate refugee and an economic migrant culminates in the multiplication of categories that aim to contain and control human mobility. Such multiplication of categories exposes the will to hinder access to refugee protection, but it also reflects the recognition of these non-refugees need for protection. These relations between protection and regularization, management and control, become clear when we look at how Brazil has dealt with migratory flows in its own territory. In light of the debate, understanding that Brazil is inserted in a broader international context and, therefore, in practices and norms that go beyond its territorial limits, the Venezuelan flow is analyzed as a case study that allows to glimpse the deficiency and insufficiency of these categories of mobility, and their direct relation to the perpetuation of the precarious and provisional condition to which those on the move are subjected to.

Published in 1977, Wendell Berry's book The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture gained widespread popularity. More than half a century later, many of the notions of the body and the earth presented in its seventh chapter, "The Body and the Earth," remain relevant and important for environmental discourse today. Berry's discussion of the body and the earth examines their mutuality and codependence from an ontological, theological, agricultural, and even biological perspective. The coupling of this text with Judith Butler's, Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? contemporizes his argument through its more socio-political and philosophical claims regarding life and the body. Through the discussion of societal frames that often prescribe the value of life and bodies, Butler introduces the concept of precarity, or the imposition of violence and its resultant instability of the body. Driven by the external forces of society, precarity weakens, commodifies, and exploits the body, creating unsustainable social systems. As we learn from Berry, this bodily precarity parallels the violence and mistreatment of the earth. The body, and its ecological and anthropological interconnectedness, establishes both material and immaterial ties to the earth, suggesting that any damage done to the body affects not just itself, but the entire system. In bringing together Butler and Berry through an ecocritical dialogue, a new ethic regarding the formation and meaning of a life emerges, prompting revision of the current societal parameters that establish the definitions of the body and the earth. Berry's resurgent relevance comes from his admonitions to repair the relationships of all bodies and the networks of which they are a part. Thus, the connection between an individual and their body, other bodies, and the earth must be restored for an environmental ethic to both persist and establish productive environmental change.

The culinary industry is well known for its unforgiving workplace conditions and precarious employment relationships. Low pay, unpredictable schedules, and workplace harassment are commonplace. However, workers in the industry are often dedicated to their craft and passionate about the industry in which they work. This thesis aims to come to a better understanding of the working lives of young kitchen workers in Toronto. Using a narrative approach to research, this thesis draws on the experiences of nine young kitchen workers. Their narratives are analyzed through examining their participation in communities of practice and their experiences of employment strain. It seeks to answer the question of why these individuals enjoy their work but often hate their jobs. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / The culinary industry is well known for its unforgiving workplace conditions and precarious employment relationships. Low pay, unpredictable schedules, and workplace harassment are commonplace. However, workers in the industry are often dedicated to their craft and passionate about the industry in which they work. This thesis aims to come to a better understanding of the working lives of young kitchen workers in Toronto. Using a narrative approach to research, this thesis draws on the experiences of nine young kitchen workers. Their narratives are analyzed through examining their participation in communities of practice and their experiences of employment strain. It seeks to answer the question of why these individuals enjoy their work but often hate their jobs.

Refugee Resettlement Agencies in the United States make headlines because of the people they help, but what about the immigrant support providers doing the work? In Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts there are organizations that open their doors to newly arrived people needing assistance. The purpose of this case study was to explore the experience of working as a resettlement provider for immigrants in Massachusetts between 2016 and 2021. I argue that Donald Trump’s policy decisions were a form of structural violence against and experienced by the resettlement organizations contracted to the federal government to assist refugees. Preliminary literature reviews showed research on refugees was saturated. A few articles discussed psychological impacts on providers in a clinical setting or presented quantitative analyses of immigration statistics. My research is a novel ethnographic case study of the resettlement organizations. This study was conducted over three years during the COVID-19 pandemic. I examined the effect of changes to the body-politic, the social-body, and the body-self levels of experience. By using a holistic model of health, I connect these experiences to the physical, social, and psychological dimensions of wellbeing. Throughout the fourth chapter, I argue that Trump’s pernicious executive policy decisions were intentional acts of violent against resettlement organizations across the United States. The anti-immigrant rhetoric in the media and policies, combined with increased xenophobia withdrew vital physical and social resources for providers. This created a shift in the hegemonic forces in the United States that impacted organization and refugees alike. Chapter Five argues that Massachusetts resettlement organizations were impacted through implicit effects at the state and community levels. As the pressure of their work increased and their community relationship became more complicated, their precarity was compounded by COVID-19. This is illustrated through the starvation of the social-body and subsequent re-feeding they experienced. Finally, Chapter Six argues that individual resettlement providers experienced a state of precarious wellbeing. They had to develop creative coping mechanisms to work through the precarity after being flooded with new arrivals. The providers embodied this precarity on a personal level, though not passively. They pushed back against the Trump Administration’s violence through interagency legal action, solid community partnerships, and individual coping mechanisms.

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