Flows, Eddies, Swamps, and Whirlpools: Inequality and the Experience of Work Change

The main concern of this paper is how inequalities are implicated in the capacity individuals have to deal with changes in their work. The ability to deal with change — to seek it out, go with it, benefit from it — is a key aspect of neoliberal discourse on the contemporary economy. Yet, there is little recognition within this discourse of the different capacities individuals have to initiate or respond to work change. This paper draws attention to such differences, and adds to arguments challenging the flexibilization and individualization encouraged by neoliberal accounts of the economy. In particular, the paper examines the way inequality structures two main strategies individuals are advised to adopt in managing employment change — lifelong learning and networking. We identify two types of employment change (with occupational continuity and with occupational change) and demonstrate the significant inequalities structuring individual efforts to negotiate such changes. Occupational continuity or change, and access to advantaged or disadvantaged forms and levels of resources, combine within four dynamics of work change: flows and eddies for the advantaged, and swamps and whirlpools for the disadvantaged. Our research suggests that attention to how individuals negotiate changes in their employment will help to illuminate the dense and complex character of socially embedded work trajectories, as well as the intricate role of inequality in structuring the processes of change.