Strangers at our door

Sport organisations are increasingly expected and encouraged to take up a wider social role. They are thought to foster social capital, social inclusion and democratic participation among organisat...

Social roles of sport organisations: developments, contexts and challenges

Information asymmetry regarding local job prospects, imperfect portability of qualifications and a lack of host country language skills combine to reduce migrants’ perceptions of their own employability. As a result, platform mediated gig work has become a common labour market entry point for new migrants. However, there is a near-universal expectation among workers is that gig work will be undertaken short-term, rather than as the first step of a longer gig-career. While research has explored the individual and structural factors, there has been limited attention as to how the specific occupational context in which a worker is embedded can also shape workers’ perceived employability. In this article, I therefore present the results of 37 semi-structured interviews with migrant Foodora couriers across Norway and Sweden, exploring how the specific occupational context of gig work intersects with migrants’ perceived employability. This article identifies, firstly, that obtaining employment in gig work was not perceived to be a reflection of workers’ own local employability. Secondly, workers’ short-term temporal orientations shape how participants are able to cope with the physical, emotional and identity demands of gig work. Thirdly, workers have to re-frame their perceived employability in the face of what is perceived to be widespread discrimination in the local labour market context. Lastly, the specific occupational context of gig work was considered to be either of no value to future local employers, or a negative signal as to a worker’s skills and labour market integration.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0308518X221083021

‘This isn’t forever for me’: Perceived employability and migrant gig work in Norway and Sweden

Using clustering and principal component analysis, we demonstrate that—at the national level in Europe—innovativeness correlates strongly to both social capital and participation in sport. In this aspect, countries such as the Scandinavian countries and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe differ visibly. Referring to prior empirical research, we claim that a causal relation between sports, through social capital, and innovativeness can be established. In the context of social capital accumulation, we further discuss the role of sports clubs, often perceived as a socially intensive form of participation in sport, but most likely diminishing in this respect lately.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10489/pdf

Through Sport to Innovation: Sustainable Socio-Economic Development in European Countries

This study investigated the role of informal sport settings (i.e. self-organised and non-voluntary sports clubs) in the social integration of Ethiopian and Eritrean women into Swiss society. Social...

Social integration of Ethiopian and Eritrean women in Switzerland through informal sport settings

Gyms that at the same time offer an environment for individualized training and social encounters are today attractive to a broad and culturally diverse group of people. The figuration sociological...

The gym as intercultural meeting point? Binding effects and boundaries in gym interaction

Ausgehend von der These der Kern- und der Randbelegschaft (Atkinson 1984), wird in der Leiharbeitsforschung vor allem auf Ausgrenzungsprozesse zwischen dem Stammpersonal und den Leiharbeitnehmern abgestellt Auf Basis der figurationssoziologischen Perspektive, insbesondere der Studie „Etablierte und Ausenseiter“ von Elias und Scotson (1993), werden im vorliegenden Beitrag diese einseitige Betrachtung hinterfragt und die Annaherungsprozesse zwischen den beteiligten Gruppen untersucht Eine Einzelfallstudie aus der Automobilzuliefererbranche dient als empirische Illustration dafur, wie sich das Verhaltnis zwischen den Leiharbeitnehmern und den Stammmitarbeitern konstituiert und welche spezifischen organisationalen Bestimmungsgrosen der Figuration im Leiharbeitsfall zur Aufrechterhaltung der Abgrenzung zwischen den beiden Gruppen sowie zu ihrer Relativierung beitragen

Weder Etablierte noch Außenseiter. Figurationssoziologische Betrachtungen der Leiharbeit

Research on temporary agency work emphasizes that temporary agency workers (TAWs), particularly those in low-skilled jobs associated with precariousness and low social prestige, are likely to be exposed to poor treatment, as well as stigmatization. On the contrary, stigmatization of TAWs in high-skilled jobs has not been treated in much detail in previous studies. Literature provides an incomplete picture of stigmatization within the broader field of temporary employment regarding the focus on low-skilled jobs. Hence, the present qualitative study is based on data from interviews of a heterogeneous sample of TAWs employed in low- and high-skilled jobs in Germany. By using and modifying Boyce and colleagues’ (2007) model of stigmatization, the study shows that stigmatizing treatment towards TAWs occurs across all skill levels, although the intensity and form of those experiences, as well as coping strategies, differ. Thereby, this study contributes to a more differentiated and skill level-specific understanding of how TAWs perceive and cope with stigmatization linked to their employment status. It also provides an important opportunity to advance Boyce and colleagues’ (2007) complex model of TAW stigmatization with empirical underpinnings.

/pdf/temporary-employment-permanent-stigma-perceptions-of-1mnxypyd2a.pdf

Temporary Employment, Permanent Stigma? Perceptions of Temporary Agency Workers Across Low- and High-Skilled Jobs

Micro-enterprises and self-employed individuals have been hit particularly hard by the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but few studies have tackled the issue. This paper is based on four in-depth case studies of self-employed people from different sectors who have been greatly affected by measures taken to control the pandemic. By capturing shifts in the perception of institutional and economic pressures, as well as precarity after the outbreak of COVID-19, we gained profound insight into crisis management among entrepreneurs working in niche or marginalized fields of business. We found parallels in their biographies and attitudes, but their perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic differ. We observed paradoxes and hybrid logic, as well as different ways of coping with the crisis. Having a “plan B” helped in some cases, while all of them benefitted from the solidarity of networks and communities.

/pdf/if-things-really-go-on-as-they-are-at-the-moment-then-i-will-2a67o6qr.pdf

Pia Cardone

Papers

The gym as intercultural meeting point? Binding effects and boundaries in gym interaction

Weder Etablierte noch Außenseiter. Figurationssoziologische Betrachtungen der Leiharbeit

Temporary Employment, Permanent Stigma? Perceptions of Temporary Agency Workers Across Low- and High-Skilled Jobs

“If Things Really Go On as They Are at the Moment, Then I Will Work Illegally. End of Story.” Pandemic Realities in Marginalized Entrepreneurships