Answers to the uncertainty from the workers in the Valencian textile and clothing sector

Abstract

The political and business management of trade liberalization process in textile and clothing sector opened a major crisis in the mid-2000s. This crisis was especially acute in Valencian regions of Alcoià, Comtat and Vall d'Albaida where not only the economy but also the social imaginary of its inhabitants have been built over this sector traditionally. For the research whose originates this article, this situation served as a metaphor for the perception of uncertainty, understood as the lack of valid codes to make sense of the events that are experienced in everyday life and consequently, the inability to plan long-term employment as both life.

The main objective of this article has been to set out the conclusions of the research on the responses of workers facing with the uncertainty in the textile and clothing industry regions previously men-tioned. More specifically, the purpose was to find out about how the textile and clothing workers faced with the uncertainty through the analysis of their speeches. The majority response has been the rejection of any possible change that causes doubt, also the defense against it, as well as its minimiza-tion using the few tools that has the working-class at its disposal: the privatization of their interests, the limitation of their expectations about consumption and living in general, and the attempt to im-merse oneself in a routine that allows a minimal planning which the uncertainty takes them.