The lived experience of class : personal aspects of the territorialized processes of economic casualisation in two industrial communities

Abstract

Economic casualisation progressively leads to the institution of the insecurity and progressive competition that is at the heart of contemporary societies. Between 2007 and 2008, we conducted independent ethnographic researches in Rebordosa (Portugal) and Rotherham (United Kingdom). Both are traditional industrial areas submitted to strenuous social and economic re-structuring. The personal mediations of this "crisis" constitute our main theoretical focus. At the same time, we aim at dealing with the methodological problems raised when trying to capture the apparently ineffable aspects of a practical mode of existence.