In 1989, the Czech Republic rejected the totalitarian system and embarked on a long journey of rebuilding society. This complex process of transition is mainly marked with profound reshaping of the political and economic system. The main aim of this thesis is to explore the attitudes to work in the Czech Republic during the post-socialist transition, and to establish the main determinants of these attitudes. Moreover, it is the purpose of this study to assess the possible legacy of the socialist system in the area of work and employment. This research employs a mixed method approach which is a combination of broader quantitative analysis, setting out the patterns of the change, followed by an in-depth qualitative investigation into how people understand and perceive the change in their everyday lives. By means of combining these different methods, this research is set to reflect on the levels of complexity of the transition process. The most significant finding to emerge from the study, is the central role of the market and its forces as the main driving force of the transition, both in the area of work and in other spheres of life. While the effects of marketization in the Czech society are profound, my investigation shows that the consequences of market forces, including work and life insecurities, are not equally distributed across the population, but vary along the dimensions of age, gender, geographical location and the level of education and qualification. This reinstates social inequality and stratification in the society. The legacies of socialism were found to have an attenuating effect in the transition defined primarily in terms of social and cultural forces. Broader implications arising from these results are in the area of social solidarity in respect to the functioning of the capitalist organizations, as well as in the sphere of people’s relationships in general.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:659201 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Banovcova, Lenka |
| Contributors | Cressey, Peter ; Ridge, Tess |
| Publisher | University of Bath |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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