Abstract
Dissertation Abstract: Interactive processes which unemployed
women experience in their relationships or to which extent does a woman's
unemployment affect interaction in the relationship and the relationship
itself.
This dissertation attempts to research into the changes of interactive
processes which unemployed women experience in a relationship, to reveal
constitutional principles which rule the female probands' everyday-life
and to explain orientation patterns. By using the reconstructive method,
a technique employed in connection with interpretative social research,
the author's line of inquiry provides an extensive analysis of three out
of thirty available interviews. They are reproduced according to their
inherent logical creation and compared to other case studies. Also, contrastive
elements are determined within their common structure.
The author raises the question of how women deal with being unemployed
and their relationships and she examines the curriculum vitae and/or changing
patterns which reveal the experiences and imprinting of the women in question
in terms of social background, class affiliation and education. The study
found that both the women and their partners may experience interactive
processes which can neither be anticipated nor controlled and which
support the notion that such interactions within a relationship during
unemployment have strong and long term influences on the life-course of
the unemployed woman. The results also show that the partner's positive
or negative perception of the woman's well-being influences the way in
which the woman is possibly able to cope with unemployment. Apparently,
the degree to which both partners are capable to openly discuss their emotional
situation in the course of unemployment can be considered a decisive factor
regarding the failure or strengthening of their relationship.
The author has chosen not to include a total overview of the German
labour market policy in order to have greater scope for providing detailed
social references. However, a micro-level perspective is provided regarding
the social consequences of unemployment which can be observed against the
background of a single case study. On a long term basis, these consequences
are likely to have an adverse effect on the functioning of a relationship
and to achieve impact on a greater scale in terms of societal interactions.
Therefore, the interactive processes within a partnership, based on an
example given by three unemployed women in East Germany, shed light on
the larger questions of our social an societal policy and a part of that
policy which can only be described as extremely deficient.
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