Precarious Employment and Voluntary Work in the Context of Urban Culture’s Spectacularization – Sociological Analysis

Abstract

The precarious employment in the context of a social change of an urban economy is widely and vividly discussed among the academics and the other environments. The author tries to prove that the change of an urban economy implies alterations in the context of the cities’ culture. The outcome is the spectacularization of an urban space. The article aims at analyzing the relations between the precarized as well as the voluntary work experience and the social position of workers producing the cultural events in the urban space. Using the existing data pertaining the microsocial aspects of the experiences of work in the cultural sector and the mezostructural dimension of the social position of the workers, the author shows the empirical background of the theoretical framework of the precarious employment and conditions of a voluntary work. On the one hand the workers are experiencing a relentless uncertainty and fear of losing the stable work. On the other hand the voluntary workers believe in the imminent promotion in their careers. Such a situation leads to normalization of precarious employment and to proliferation of views that volunteers are in better position on the labour market than the other groups.