Managing intersectional precarity in times of the Covid-19 pandemic: The case of essential workers in Poland

Abstract

The article explores how essential workers in health, social care, education and logistics in Poland coped with precarity during the COVID- 19 pandemic in relation to their intersectional identities and experiences of inequality. Inspired by Fritz Schütze’s biographical sociology and intersectional research on work organisations, it develops a concept of biographical resources, understood as the tacit knowledge and skills that individuals use to pursue their life strategies. Based on the narrative sequential analysis of a collection of biographical narrative interviews with precarious essential workers, a typology of life strategies is proposed that reflects the biographical relevance of social ties and the types of worker agency. The in-depth analysis of four exemplary cases illustrates how workers have coped with precarity, taking into account both individual (biographical resources) and social factors (work organisation, intersecting inequalities and social crises). Even though the pandemic has not reversed the trend towards individualised coping, in some cases it has stimulated a shift towards solidaristic strategies, reflecting the combination of workers’ biographical resources (including those related to intersectional identities), organisational resources (workplace ties) and the intervention of social and labour movements. Overall, the theoretical, methodological and empirical considerations presented in the article provide novel arguments for combining biographical and intersectional approaches to the study of precarity in organisations.