SOCIAL IDENTITY OF LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYED

The paper presents the preliminary analysis of six family histories co llected in the project Social History of Poverty in Slovakia (1995 - 1 997). The focus is on how long-term unemployed unskilled or semi-skill ed workers and their families cope with the life discontinuity represe nted by the lost of job; how they reconstruct their social identity th rough their autobiographical narratives. The findings suggest that rem aining in the category of inactive long-term unemployed is caused by f amily' pragmatic calculation of no income difference in case of their members' reemployment. The erosion of normative pattern of normal biog raphy is strenghtened by family' acceptation of their unemployed membe rs as respectable ones first of all due the self-help activities by wh ich they contribute to secure livelihood of family. Participation in m oral economy represents then a basis of reconstructing and geting conf irmation of - new social identity of long-term unemployed.