Precariousness of engineer labor: A qualitative research on textile engineers in Bursa

Precariousness is a concept used to emphasize the unstable, uncertain and precarious nature of labor employment in today's working life. The standard form of employment of labor in the Fordist era was full-time, secure and formal employment. The meaning of the standard form of employment was the provision of conditions for labor to guarantee the process of production and reproduction. With the neoliberal transformation process, the standard form of employment has gradually eroded; flexible forms of employment have emerged that are short-term, unstable and precarious. The link established in the Fordist era between being employed in terms of labor and being secure has been largely severed in today's conditions. This rupture makes labor's working and living conditions precarious, uncertain and precarious and fragile. When the literature on precariousness is examined, it is seen that precarious employment conditions are evaluated by focusing on disadvantaged groups in terms of bargaining power in the labor market. However, in today's working life, precaious employment and precarious living conditions are becoming increasingly common among advantageous groups in terms of bargaining power in the labor market. This study focuses on the precariousness experiences of engineers, who are among the advantageous groups in terms of bargaining power in the labor market. The sample group of the study consists of textile engineers working/worked in Bursa. In the first part, the experiences of precariousness in working life and the precariousness of engineers' labor are examined. In the second part, the development of the textile sector in the world and in Turkey and the transformations in textile engineering education in Turkey are evaluated. In the third part, in-depth interviews were conducted with eighteen textile engineers working/worked in Bursa using the semi-structured interview method. In this context, within the framework of pre-prepared questions, the working and living conditions of engineers and the opinions, thoughts and expectations of engineers to the textile industry, textile engineering education and the textile engineers' organisation were evaluated. The aim of the study is to evaluate the precariousness experiences of textile engineers in depth together with the transformations in textile industry and textile engineering education in Turkey.