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Precariousness and Quality of Life—a Qualitative Perspective on Quality of Life of Households in Precarious Prosperity in Switzerland and Spain

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Abstract

Households’ resources and constraints are key components of quality of life (QOL). QOL also depends on how these are evaluated. In times of crisis one expects subjective wellbeing and quality of life to decline. We argue that the quality of life depends on objective living conditions, their subjective evaluation and the ability to maintain or improve the situation of “embedded individuals”. This ability, in turn, depends on the opportunities provided by the state, labour markets, families and communities. We analyse qualitative interviews (2008–2010) with around 25 households in precarious prosperity in two cities (Pamplona, Spain and Lausanne, Switzerland) to elaborate their QOL. Few sampled Swiss households witnessed a decline in socio-economic status, contrary to the Spanish. Domains important to these households for QOL varied according to the opportunity structures: in the Spanish sample QOL was related to the opportunities for income, work, and security to plan ahead; in the Swiss sample to health, work-life balance and loneliness. In both samples, QOL varied according to scope of agency, people’s position within the life course, the households’ past experiences, current situation and future perspectives. Lack of future perspectives and opportunities lowered QOL; reframing, adaption and accepting the situation sometimes moderated QOL. We conclude that apart from living conditions and/or subjective wellbeing, households’ agency within opportunity structures is a promising direction for further research in QOL.

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Notes

  1. Following one of the ten definitions of the Rh Value Publishing (1989: 889), our understanding of the term mechanism for the purpose of our research question is: “the agency or means by which an effect is produced or a purpose is accomplished.“ With this definition, we try to sidestep the vast and on-going debate regarding mechanisms in the social sciences, the natural sciences, and philosophy (for example Hedström and Ylikoski 2010; Hedström and Schwedberg 1998; McKay Illari and Williamson 2012).

  2. See Mackert (2010) for an overview of the use of the term “opportunity structures”.

  3. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS. The ILO presents somewhat lower values but for different years (2010: 184–187).

  4. Erikson (1988) argues that people adapt to their circumstances; Crettaz and Suter (2013) show empirically that adaptation depends on the measurement (in quantitative studies).

  5. “Functionings represent parts of the state of a person—in particular the various things that he or she manages to do or be in leading a life. The capability of a person reflects the alternative combinations of functionings the person can achieve, and from which he or she can choose one collection. The approach is based on a view of living as a combination of various ‘doings and beings’, with quality of life to be assessed in terms of the capability to achieve valuable functionings” (Sen 2008: 171).

  6. In contrast to Veenhoven’s (2000) concept of four qualities of life, living conditions and household’s resources are not seen as quality of life but as conditions for quality of life.

  7. The data we analyse were collected within a project focussing on household strategies and not quality of life. From the results of previous research and theories, we elaborated a conceptual framework that makes our perspective explicit, clarifies our assumptions and expectations and guides the analysis of the data without determining the perspective. Our analysis is deductive (guided by the conceptual framework) and inductive (from the information given by the respondents).

  8. “[W]ork is a core activity in a society and being in paid employment is consistently ranked as one of the most important determinants of a high quality of life in Europe” (Drobnič and Ana 2011:233).

  9. Immigrant households with work permit are: ES19: Ecuador, ES04: Ecuador, nationalized Spanish, ES05: Senegal, ES13: Colombia, ES15: Colombia; without work permits: ES05: Senegal, ES16: Peru. A qualitative study on crisis-ridden Spain further differentiates the populations and finds that undocumented workers and “immigrant workers experience greater precariousness”; they are pushed to extreme precariousness, that “will probably also have an impact on the physical and mental health of these workers” (Porthé et al. 2010:422–423).

  10. The public child-care system in Switzerland is relatively underdeveloped (Holtmann et al. 2012:91).

  11. A trial with the house insurance for compensation was on-going at the time of both interviews.

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Acknowledgments

Authors note: order of authorship is alphabetical. All authors contributed equally to the completion of the manuscript.

The Swiss National Science foundation funded this research (SNF Grants: no. 116605 and no. IZERZO 141975). We thank the university teams at the Universidad Pùblica de Navarra in Spain (in particular Prof. Dr. Miguel Laparra, Dr. Ruth Iturbide and Dr. Lucía Martínez Virto) and the University of Fribourg (in particular Dr. Michèle Amacker, Dr. Wiebke Keim).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, University of Fribourg, Rte des Bonnesfontaines 11, 1700, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Monica Budowski & Sebastian Schief

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Neuchâtel, Fbg de l’Hôpital 27, 2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Rebekka Sieber

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  1. Monica Budowski
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Correspondence to Rebekka Sieber.

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Budowski, M., Schief, S. & Sieber, R. Precariousness and Quality of Life—a Qualitative Perspective on Quality of Life of Households in Precarious Prosperity in Switzerland and Spain. Applied Research Quality Life 11, 1035–1058 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-015-9418-7

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