Young people and subjectivities facing job insecurity in Mexico: practices, strategies and meanings

Abstract

• This research addresses the problema of job insecurity in Young workers in Mexico City, analyzing from Pierre Bourdieu’s theory their practices, strategies and meanings in the face of occupational hazards. Based on concepts such as practical sense, strategy or habitus, an attempt is made to address the different experiences of young people in their work careers and to visualize what meanings they give to their practices in relation to the structural insecurity of the labor market. The forms of agency that emerge from these practices and their limitations are analyzed, as well as the areas of socialization of the risks that can be configured from familiarization, commodification or decommodifica- tion from public policies. Finally, the findings of the research work are analyzed from interviews with young adults and a description of the most relevant practices such as saving, continuous training and self-exploitation is made, which allow us to conclude that there is a high degree of individualization of the risks and job insecurity, generating together with other factors, the absence of articulation of collective demands or union action by young workers.