ABSTRACT
Stories dealing with the issue of work and recounting episodes and experiences of redundancy and unemployment clearly show that people cope with episodes of exclusion from the labour market and paid work in an active way. People wish to make use of their labour power and are capable of offering services and commodities that are useful to others, regardless of the aim of ‘full employment’ on a societal level. ‘Unemployment’ is usually caused by a down-sizing of staff, the collapse of firms, the privatisation of state enterprises, budget-cuts in non-profit organisations and the elimination of low-skilled jobs from the labour market. The self-presentation of the interviewee is close to a labour-orientation that defines work as the meaning of life and not as a means to earn a living. It may be that the instrumental orientation of ‘working-for-a- living’ is self-evident, and there is no need talk about the necessity of paid work and of an income.
