Irina Tomescu-Dubrow Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow · Anna Kiersztyn Katarzyna Andrejuk · Marta Kołczyńska Kazimierz M. Slomczynski The Subjective Experience of Joblessness in Poland [email protected] The Subjective Experience of Joblessness in Poland [email protected] Irina Tomescu-Dubrow • Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow Anna Kiersztyn • Katarzyna Andrejuk Marta Kołczyńska • Kazimierz M. Slomczynski The Subjective Experience of Joblessness in Poland [email protected] Irina Tomescu-Dubrow Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow Institute of Philosophy and Sociology Institute of Philosophy and Sociology Polish Academy of Sciences Polish Academy of Sciences Warsaw, Poland Warsaw, Poland Anna Kiersztyn Katarzyna Andrejuk Institute of Sociology Institute of Philosophy and Sociology Warsaw University Polish Academy of Sciences Warsaw, Poland Warsaw, Poland Marta Kołczyńska Kazimierz M. Slomczynski Institute of Philosophy and Sociology Institute of Philosophy and Sociology Polish Academy of Sciences Polish Academy of Sciences Warsaw, Poland Warsaw, Poland Department of Sociology The Ohio State University Columbus, OH, USA ISBN 978-3-030-13646-8 ISBN 978-3-030-13647-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13647-5 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland [email protected] Preface and Acknowledgment This book is about the experience of joblessness in Poland that we examine through a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses. We employ two main sources of data. The first source is the Polish Panel Survey, POLPAN (polpan.org), con- ducted on a representative national sample of Polish citizens in 5-year intervals since 1988. It provides the frame for selecting individuals for the Joblessness proj- ect, our other main data source. It also provides information on these people’s labor market outcomes one year after the Joblessness project concluded. Thus, POLPAN enables us to place the experience of the jobless in the context of their social struc- tural conditions prior to and after having lost paid employment. The Joblessness project was conducted in the framework of the 2010–2013 grant received from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (1353/B/H03/2010/39) and with additional support from the grant Polish Panel Survey, POLPAN 1988– 2013 (National Science Centre, Poland 2011/02/A/HS6/00238). Work stemming from the Joblessness project continued into the early part of 2018. We completed this book under the auspices of a new grant for POLPAN, awarded by Poland’s National Science Centre at the end of 2017 (National Science Centre, Poland UMO- 2017/25/B/HS6/02697). Most of the contributors to this volume are members of CONSIRT (Cross- National Studies: Interdisciplinary Research and Training (consirt.osu.edu)), a joint program of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Poland and The Ohio State University in the USA. By organizing scientific meetings that involved Polish and American scholars, and by drawing students from Poland and the USA into analyzing the project’s data, CONSIRT was essential for providing an international dimension to both POLPAN and the Joblessness project. In the course of conducting this long-term inquiry, we accumulated a high degree of debt to a large number of friends, colleagues, and collaborators. We thank all and mention three explicitly. We thank Professor Włodzimierz Wesołowski, whose cru- cial role in building the foundation of social stratification research in Poland has a lasting impact on subsequent inequality research, the Joblessness project included. We thank Professor Krystyna Janicka, who is always ready to help us solve our research problems. We thank Professor Maria Zielińska, who discussed with us our v [email protected] vi Preface and Acknowledgment initial project of mixed interviewing techniques. Of course, we thank Professor Zbigniew Sawiński, whose role in managing the POLPAN data is invaluable. It would be difficult to imagine completing this book without the support of IFiS PAN administrative staff. The director of IFiS PAN, Professor Andrzej Rychard, fully supports our team’s work. We are grateful to Grażyna Drążyk, chief officer of the Research Division, for managing our team’s projects, including the Joblessness project. Ewa Dworniak’s administrative help remains invaluable. The main empirical analyses presented in this book were discussed at various conferences, workshops, and seminars in Poland and Romania. In Poland, Agnieszka Kramm and Anna Jachimiak, from the foundation Miejsce Kobiet [The Women’s Place], organized a workshop to disseminate the results of the Joblessness study among interested social actors. This workshop was attended by representatives of local unemployment offices. A portion of this research was presented at the Romanian Academy in Bucharest at the invitation of Professor Bogdan Voicu. We thank the organizers of these events and the attendees. The research team of POLPAN and the Joblessness study included, in addition to the authors of this book, our colleagues: Anna Baczko-Dombi, Ewa Jarosz, Małgorzata Mikucka, Anna Turner, Kinga Wysieńska-Di Carlo, Ilona Wysmułek, and Danuta Życzyńska-Ciołek. We appreciate their help on various stages of prepar- ing this book. We extend our special thanks to Danuta Życzyńska-Ciołek, who was particularly involved in data processing, spending hours on the interview transcripts, and commenting on the ideas in the book. Interviewing persons without jobs has been a particularly difficult task. Anna Broniewska and Dorota Laskowska, from the fieldwork unit “ORBS” of IFiS PAN, coordinated and supervised the interviewers involved in the Joblessness project. Their effort in monitoring the fieldwork resulted in high-quality data. We also thank the interviewers, who fanned out across Poland to interview people on sensitive matters. Sociological studies depend on everyday people who are willing to share their stories. We thank our respondents, who agreed to spend their time for the interviews and to thoroughly answer intrusive questions. We dedicate this book to them. Warsaw, Poland Irina Tomescu-Dubrow Warsaw, Poland Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow Warsaw, Poland Anna Kiersztyn Warsaw, Poland Katarzyna Andrejuk Warsaw, Poland Marta Kołczyńska Columbus, OH, USA Kazimierz M. Slomczynski Warsaw, Poland [email protected] Contents 1 Introduction: The Experience of Joblessness in Poland ...................... 1 Defining Joblessness ................................................................................. 2 The Data: The Joblessness Study and the Polish Panel Survey, POLPAN ...................................................................................... 3 Research Design in the Joblessness Project .......................................... 4 The Instrument ...................................................................................... 5 Data Collection ..................................................................................... 6 Theoretical Perspectives ........................................................................... 6 Social Constructions ............................................................................. 6 Social Class and Inequality ................................................................... 7 Outline of the Book ................................................................................... 8 Our Contributions ..................................................................................... 8 References ................................................................................................. 9 Part I Background of the Study 2 Economic Context, Labor Market Situation, and Employment Policies ....................................................................... 13 Building a New Society After 1989 .......................................................... 13 Waves of Unemployment in Post-communist Poland ............................... 14 Poland and the Global Economic Crisis ................................................... 17 Migration and the Labor Market ............................................................... 18 Labor Market Flexibility and Its Consequences ....................................... 19 Trash Contracts and