“Flexible narratives” Discursive Positionings of Gender and Identity in Precarious Times

Annalisa Murgia

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.07.1.03

Authors

Annalisa Murgia University of Trento, Italy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.07.1.03

Keywords:

Gender Identities, Flexible Work, Precariousness, Narrative Interviews, Positioning Analysis

Abstract

Studies concerning the transformations of work have long stressed how flexible work has affected the lives and identity-setting processes of individuals. A salient aspect of the current changes consists of the gender issues concerning the reality of work and its representations. The aim of this paper is to stress gender-identitary positionings in the context of the stories of women and men in non-standard employment. The specific question that the article addresses is whether the increasing distance from the "standard" working model – concerning full-time long-term employment – is also being accompanied by a change in the prevailing gender models. In particular, the stories of women and men with non-standard and precarious jobs are presented, in order to show how, by means of narratives, gender models linked to precarious work are constructed.

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Author Biography

Annalisa Murgia, University of Trento, Italy

Annalisa Murgia is member of the Research Unit on Communication, Organizational Learning and
Aesthetics, and of the Centre of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies at the University of Trento (Italy),
where she is lecturer for the Master in Gender Policies in the Labour World. Her researches focus on
work trajectories, with special regard to workers with non-standard and precarious jobs, and on the
social construction of gender in professional careers.

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