Lebensführung und Orientierung junger Frauen in sozialen Berufen. Umgang mit Widersprüchen in prekären Beschäftigungsverhältnissen, in der Reproduktionsarbeit und in Alltagsdiskursen

The primary focus of this volume are young adult women employed in education, health care, and social work, some of whom have children or live in a partnership, while others live alone. More specifically, our interest lies in how they conduct and lead their lives, analysing how they experience overall conditions in their respective occupations and deal with the demands of both gainful and reproductive labour. We also highlight the discourses and structures of meaning confronting these women in their daily lives. In theoretical terms, the thesis concentrates on the investigation of concepts of life conduct with reference to central categories of critical psychology, in dialogue with the theoretical notions of governmentality and discourse found in the work of Michel Foucault. In a first step, the concept of everyday life conduct is defined theoretically, as it is here that individuals confront social demands and develop their own subjective orientations and actions within them. In the field of critical sociology, a central category is that of action potence (Handlungsfähigkeit). Within the tension between possibility and limitations of action potence, critical psychology identifies the ‘double possibility’ (doppelte Möglichkeit): ‘restrictive vs. generalized action potence’ (restriktive vs. verallgemeinerte Handlungsfähigkeit) – action within existing structures vs. the development of possibilities to overcome prevailing conditions. Given the complex and contradictory nature of the social relations being addressed, it seemed both interesting and productive to incorporate further approaches beyond our initial social theoretical reference to the Marxism of critical psychology. Accordingly, Michel Foucault’s theoretical deliberations on discourse and governmentality are discussed in interaction with critical psychology’s subject-oriented approach. The thesis also conceptualizes ‘orientation’, as orientating oneself within a diverse and complex discursive field constitutes a substantial dimension of individual life conduct as a whole. Additionally, ‘solidary action’ is introduced as a possible form of addressing social problems and contradictions. Before addressing individual case studies, an introductory step investigates gender relations in the contemporary social formation. This study adopts a double perspective, first addressing gender relations as relations of production (Frigga Haug) while also viewing gender relations as an effect of state actions (Gundula Ludwig, et al.). Building upon this, interrelations between life conduct and gender relations are discussed, including a critical discussion of Regina Becker-Schmidt’s concept of ‘double socialisation’. The social services sector as well as the health care sector have been targets of the neoliberalization of the welfare state for years, and general decline in terms of both working conditions and real wages has become the norm. Women are disproportionately represented in these occupations, and their relations of employment are thus affected by rising pressure and processes of precarization in a unique way. Gabriele Winker describes this shift as part of the ‘crisis of reproduction’. In the empirical section of the thesis, nine guided interviews are investigated relying on the methods of grounded theory and detail analysis as developed in Josef Held’s subject-oriented research approach. Four interviews are further elaborated into case analyses. The life conduct of the women interviewed is characterized by contradictions emerging from the diverse range of demands and expectations with which they are confronted, leading to contradictory fundamental constellations, which are subsequently traced in the interview analysis. In the concluding ‘topic-specific evaluation’, the five additional interviews are brought into the discussion in order to better illuminate the constellations of contradiction in both the gainful and reproductive spheres. In the gainful sphere, a typical fundamental constellation is the ‘exhaustion of the social’, i.e., the pressure many young women describe in their respective occupations, driven by rising expectations and increasingly tight financial resources. In the reproductive sphere, women are confronted with the contradictory discourses of the ‘institutionalized expectations inherent in social reproduction’ (Axel Honneth) concerning ‘individual’s conduct of their lives’ and ‘family life’, whether as a good mother or alone. Finally, selected ‘spaces of possibility’ (Möglichkeitsräume) – specific movements of orientation that women have formulated for themselves – are investigated: firstly, an orientation towards ‘self-care’ as a coping strategy, or, secondly, a move towards ‘solidary action’ in individual life conduct.