Work and its transformations: from statism-based work to the Gig Economy

Abstract

Motivation: Work as a socio-cultural and -economic phenomenon in the process of Poland’s economic transformation within the last thirty years requires special analyses due to its central role both in individual and social terms. To a significant extent, the traditional approach is based on unhelpful separation of economic determinants from the social system as a whole, which is with detriment to the ability to investigate economic processes. Economic phenomena are not the effect of actions of unrelated individuals and their decisions based on rational calculations, but also arise out of the values rooted in their way of thinking and demonstrated through culture.

Aim: This paper is aimed at describing the evolution of work in the context of the changes occurring on the labour market which result from the transformation of these institutions and of the economic culture of Poles. The aim may be achieved by assuming that the experience of the so-called ‘cultural turn’, a term which perfectly suits to describe the transformation process, requires interest to be taken also in phenomena occurring in everyday life, such as values, attitudes or cultural patterns. The transformation of work and of its meaning for development will be subject to descriptive and comparative analysis in two aspects: (1) with regard to the shift from statism-based economy to flexible forms of employment and the occurrences that accompany that shift and (2) in terms of global economic and technological changes in this regard.

Results: The analyses carried out allowed to describe the changes in the Polish society observed in the area of work. The stages of the changes are identified, and new trends are specified which emerge under the impact of global development and their consequences for the economy and the society.