著者

仁井田 典子

出版者

首都大学東京・都立大学社会学研究会

雑誌

社会学論考

巻号頁・発行日

no.31, pp.83-112[含 英語文要旨], 2010-10

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本稿は,近年,雇用が不安定化している日本社会において,不安定な雇用状態にある人々が直面している「生きにくさ」に着目することで,現代社会が抱えている問題を明らかにしていくための実証研究である.本稿では,「フリーター」と「ニート」の境界線上を生きるひとりの男性を,事例として用いた.結論は,以下のように整理できる.(1)1990年代初頭に日本社会で社会問題化された「フリーター」「ニート」という社会問題カテゴリーは,不安定な就業状況にある彼を,社会問題の当事者として位置づけた.(2)彼は,社会問題の当事者であることを意識することで,スティグマを抱え込み,就業が長続きしないことや経済的に自立できないことの原因を,自己の問題に帰責させることで,自己否定感に苛まれる.(3)スティグマを抱え込んだ彼は,その原因を彼自身の家庭環境の問題へと転嫁することによって,自分自身を正当化していった.(4)彼は,就業に結びつかない外国語の勉強に没頭し,自己を他者と差別化することにより,自らのアイデンティティを防衛していった.(5)彼自身が直面している「生きにくさ」は,不安定な就業状況にあることを自分の家庭環境の問題,すなわち自己責任として意味づけていることから生じている.彼の「生きにくさ」は,雇用の不安定化が拡大していく現代社会において,その問題を社会的な問題でなく,個人へと帰責させていく日本社会のあり方から生じたものである.This paper is a case study focusing on the "difficulties of life" experienced by people engaged in unstable employment in Japanese society, where employment has become destabilized in recent years, with the aim to clarify the problems of modern society. This paper examines the case of a man who is on the borderline between being a freeter (part-time-job-hopper) and a NEET (young person Not in Education, Employment, or Training). The conclusions are as follows: (1) The social categories of "freeter" and "NEET," which became seen as social problems in Japan during the early 1990s, have led the young man, who is engaged in unstable employment, to be seen as part of a social problem. (2) By becoming conscious of himself as being a social problem, he has acquired a stigma and sees the causes of his failure to gain long-term employment or to become economically independent as being inherent in himself, giving rise to a feeling of self-denial. (3) Since acquiring the stigma, he has legitimized his self by shifting the responsibility onto his own family environment. (4) He has immersed himself in studying foreign languages that do not lead to employment, and by doing so has attempted to defend his identity by differentiating himself from others. (5) The "difficulties of life" that he is experiencing have emerged from the fact that he has shifted the responsibility for his state of unstable employment onto his family environment, meaning as an issue of personal responsibility. Thus, his "difficulties of life," which are taking place within modern society where employment is becoming increasingly unstable, derive from the tendency of Japanese society to shift responsibility for social problems onto individuals.