Abstract
This chapter argues that young people in VET feel strongly about enduring views of work. Their normative aspirations are grouped in three large areas that make the chapter’s three subheadings: (i) the quest for craftsmanship; (ii) the belief in hard work and need for predictability; (iii) the quest for validation and progression. The chapter argues that young people in VET (as well) value and expect from work to deliver social validation, progression, a sense of certainty and self-worth.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Approximately €200.
- 2.
Lei: the Romanian coin. Ten million lei was the equivalent of €250.
- 3.
Young people saw Roma in collective terms: as families/communities . As they were situated at social distance, interviewees were hardly able to add shade and nuance to the stereotypical image of welfare recipients as opportunistic and, ultimately, disincentivized to work. References to individuals, on the other hand, rarely mentioned reliance on welfare: it was more a matter of parasitical dependence on indulgent parents and of lifestyle (being easy-going, playing computer games and hanging around).
- 4.
A part of the young people in NEET situations seem to be heavily involved in subsistence agriculture: taking care of the cattle or land cultivation. Interviewees did not perceive the young people in these situations as ‘unemployed’. On the contrary, they seemed to attract a strong sense of appreciation in relation to the hard work.
- 5.
However, the high value young people place on VET does not exclude strategic ‘ways out’ via short-term courses (of the same type as the ones they discredit). This is particularly the case for those less confident in the quality of learning or in their own capacity to exert the VET occupation.
References
Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging Adulthood: A Theory of Development from the Late Teens Through the Twenties. American Psychologist, 55(5), 469–480.
Atkins, L. (2013). From Marginal Learning to Marginal Employment? The Real Impact of ‘Learning’. Employability Skills’ Power and Education, 5(1), 28–37.
Bergman, M. M. (1998). A Theoretical Note on the Differences Between Attitudes, Opinions, and Values. Swiss Political Science Review, 4(2), 81–93.
Billett, S. (2011). Vocational Education. Purposes, Traditions and Prospects. Dordrecht: Springer.
Carrigan, M. (2016). Against the Notion of ‘Craft’: Thoughts on the Cultural Politics of Romanticising Exploitation. Retrieved from https://markcarrigan.net/2016/09/02/against-the-notion-of-craft-thoughts-on-the-cultural-politics-of-romanticising-exploitation/
Colley, H., et al. (2003). Learning as Becoming in Vocational Education and Training: Class, Gender and the Role of Vocational Habitus. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 55(4), 471–498.
Cort, P., Mariager-Anderson, K., & Thomsen, R. (2018). Busting the Myth of Low-Skilled Workers – Destabilizing EU LLL Policies Through the Life Stories of Danes in Low-Skilled Jobs International. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 37(2), 199–215.
Crawford, M. (2009). Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Enquiry into the Value of Work. New York: Penguin.
David, D. (2015). Psihologia poporului român. Profilul psihologic al românilor într-o monografie cognitiv-experimentală. Iasi: Polirom.
Dewey, J. (1916/1966). Democracy and Education. New York: The Free Press.
Edgell, S., Gottfried, H., & Granter, E. (Eds.). (2016). The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Work and Employment. London: SAGE.
Frayne, D. (2015). The Refusal of Work: The Theory and Practice of Resistance to Work. London: Zed Books.
Frayne, D. (2016). Critiques of Work. In S. Edgell, H. Gottfried, & E. Granter (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Work and Employment (pp. 616–633). London: SAGE.
Furlong, A., Inui, A., Nishimura, T., & Kojima, Y. (2012). Accounting for the Early Labour Market Destinations of 19/20-Year-Olds in England and Wales and Japan. Journal of Youth Studies, 15(1), 1–15.
Hansen, D. T. (1994). Teaching and the Sense of Vocation. Educational Theory, 44(3), 259–275.
Koeber, C. (2002). Corporate Restructuring, Downsizing, and the Middle Class: The Process and Meaning of Worker Displacement in the ‘New’ Economy. Qualitative Sociology, 25(2), 217–246.
MacDonald, R. (1997). Youth, Social Exclusion and the Millennium. In R. MacDonald (Ed.), Youth, the ‘Underclass’ and Social Exclusion. New York: Routledge.
Macdonald, C., & Sirianni, C. (Eds.). (1996). Working in the Service Society (Labor And Social Change). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Mason, G., van Ark, B., & Wagner, K. (1994). Productivity, Product Quality and Workforce Skills: Food Processing in Four European Countries. National Institute Economic Review, 147, 62–83.
Mendick, H., Allen, K., & Harvey, L. (2015). We Can Get Everything We Want if We Try Hard: Young People, Celebrity, Hard Work. British Journal of Educational Studies, 63(2), 161–178.
Mirchandani, K. (2016). The Organization of Service Work. In S. Edgell, H. Gottfried, & E. Granter (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Work and Employment (pp. 348–364). London: SAGE.
Offe, C. (1985). Work: The Key Sociological Category? In C. Offe (Ed.), Disorganized Capitalism (pp. 129–150). Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Sayer, A. (2007). What Dignity at Work Means. In S. C. Bolton (Ed.), Dimensions of Dignity at Work (pp. 17–29). London: Butterworth.
Schubert, J. D. (2008). Suffering/Symbolic Violence. In M. Grenfell (Ed.), Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts. Durham: Acumen.
Sennett, R. (1998). The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. New York: W.W. Norton.
Sennett, R. (2006). The Culture of the New Capitalism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Sennett, R. (2008). The Craftsman. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Sennett, R. (2018, January). Richard Sennett: “New Professions with a Pride for Craftsmanship” Interview in Newsroom. Retrieved from https://www.morningfuture.com/en/article/2018/01/05/richard-sennett-new-professions-with-a-pride-for-craftsmanship/197/
Standing, G. (2016). The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. London: Bloomsbury.
Thompson, J. F. (1973). Foundations of Vocational Education: Social and Philosophical Concepts. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Tyler, I. (2013). Revolving Subjects: Social Abjection and Resistance in Neoliberal Britain. London/New York: Zed Books.
Warren, T. (2016). Work and Social Theory. In S. Edgell, H. Gottfried, & E. Granter (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Work and Employment (pp. 34–51). London: SAGE.
Wharton, A. (2016). Interactive Service Work. In S. Edgell, H. Gottfried, & E. Granter (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Work and Employment (pp. 329–347). London: SAGE.
Winch, C. (2000). Education, Work and Social Capital: Towards a New Conception of Vocational Education. Florence: Routledge.
Winlow, S., & Hall, S. (2013). Rethinking Social Exclusion: The End of the Social? London: SAGE.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pantea, MC. (2019). The ‘Grand Narrative’: Or the Power of Conventional Aspirations. In: Precarity and Vocational Education and Training. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02689-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02689-9_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02688-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02689-9
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)