Abstract

This text examines current trends in unemployment by focusing on its boundaries. These are considered as fluctuating, and two aspects of their dynamics are successively analysed. A first institutional dimension refers to the evolution of norms and rules contributing to the establishment of social and legal statuses and to access to material resources. A second, biographical, dimension focuses on subjective experiences, including the meanings invested in the unemployed condition and future projections. We argue that these two types of boundaries evolve in contradictory directions: a contraction and an enlargement of unemployment. These contradictory tendencies ultimately challenge the permanence of the category of unemployment.