The power of lore: how occupational myths help precarious workers endure

Abstract

Drawing on 55 interviews with professional opera singers, we consider the role that occupational myths play in helping the precariously employed make sense of their work and sustain their commitment to it. We advance our theoretical understanding in this area in two distinct ways. First, by theorizing occupational myths as a powerful social device that helps to rescript the intelligibility of precarious work, along with normative responses to it. Second, by grounding myths’ utility in their capacity to counteract precarity’s tendency to constrain workers’ temporal horizons. In the context of research showing that precarity locks workers into the anxious present, we show how myths push time horizons back out again, ultimately in sustaining ways. Through these contributions, we add new pieces to the increasingly complex theoretical puzzle of how and why people endure precarious work.