GENEVE ESA 2011
Political values at work in changing times
RN 39 : political sociology
Preferred presentation : oral presentation
Is there a link between professional changes and the evolution of personal political values? Is political socialization currently still happening at work?These are the questions our research project, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation,aims to answer.
In order to study these phenomenons, we have chosen three different professional groups: peasants, human resources managers and engineers[1].All theseprofessionals are facing a context of change (e.g. the recent economical crisis), but theirprofessional groups are following different trends: they are either declining (peasants), emerging (human resources managers), or highly changing and getting more specialized (engineers).
Our results show that peasants keep going on with their traditional attachment to the Union démocratique du Centre (UDC). But, facing structural problems of modernization of theiroccupation[2], they reinterpret their political affiliations. They are still supporting the UDC’s traditional faction and do not “mechanically” follow the UDC’s shift to extreme-right populism. At a professional level, they are nowadays frequently open to some propositions of a radical trade union (Uniterre). They acknowledge that it defends their rights, but they do not completelyconsiderit as legitimate.
Our second case study is about human resources managers. The sectors we have investigated are banking and watches industry.The past successful careers of these professionals are a bit slowing down: their profession has lost a part of its prestige and becomes more and more dependant of the marketing and financial departments, which are less autonomous from the CEO. In these circumstances, they have reoriented their professional and political opinions, according less attention tosocial preoccupations and more to economical ones. Nevertheless, they are still influenced by some of their left-wingrelatives and friends.
Regarding the engineers, we consider those working in the nanotechnology sector. In an inking company, engineers need to work harder in order to face the crisis. Some of them have been fired or have left, whilethose who have stayedrally to defend their companyagainst market concurrency. In this situation, private life is important in their values setand originates their civic and local political involvement[3]. We call this trend «privatepoliticization».
We will present three different kinds of socialization processes that help to understand these links between professions and politics.
TAPAS*, Universityof Fribourg, Switzerland
*TAPAS is a sociological team that includes: Pr. Francesca Poglia, Pr. Muriel Surdez, Dr. Fabrice Plomb (reader), Dr. Ivan Sainsaulieu (senior research fellow), Eric Zufferey (research assistant).
Corresponding author:
Dr. Ivan Sainsaulieu (senior research fellow, member of LISE, CNRS, Paris)
[1]At the moment, we have made sixty interviews within the three populations.
[2] We have interviewed milk producers. They are strongly affected by the price of milk which has become unstable.
[3]For examplein associations, neighbourhood committees, local political parties.