Work

Staying in Bad Jobs With a Sense of Superiority: Boundary Work as a Sensemaking Strategy

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: How do people make sense of work that grants them no economic recognition? Based on longitudinal data from interviews with artists, I argue that boundary work helps people to make sense of their position because it offers a sense of cultural superiority that masks economic inferiority. The artists mobilized three types of boundaries: the boundary vis‐à‐vis the “uneducated” public, the boundary vis‐à‐vis art and artists who cater to the taste of that public, and the boundary that created a crevice within the self—separating the work kept as sacred from the work that could be polluted by market forces. Private boundaries carried public consequences for labor markets as they created labor supply in parallel realms of market, semi‐market, non‐market work, each with different potential for exploitation or self‐exploitation.

Source: Sociological Inquiry

DOI: 10.1111/soin.70014

Author: Anna Gromada

Institutions: United Nations Children's Fund, Polish Academy of Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Management and Organizational Studies

Subfield: Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: Narodowe Centrum Nauki, Narodowym Centrum Nauki