De dependentes da Estaco a dependentes do Estado: Desemprego de meia-idade e o Estado social como último reduto

• Main Author: Pedro Araújo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra 2007-10-01
• Series: Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais
• Subjects: unemployment; the unemployed; social state
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rccs/758

This article examines the overall strands of an analysis model for experiences of unemployment, with special focus given to one of its cornerstones: compensation mediators. Within the framework of compensation mediation, an analysis is undertaken of the role played by the social state in organising strategies for adjusting to the withdrawal of employment on the part of those made unemployed after a Coimbra ceramics factory, Estaco, shut down in 2001. The pivotal position of the social state allows us to put middle-aged unemployment into perspective as an event which compromises individuals’ ability to ensure their financial autonomy and which magnifies the social state’s function.