Życie bez pracy

The author considers unemployment in Poland in the first years of the twenty-first century as a cause of the growth in poverty and the ensuing social exclusion. These phenomena are connected but not identical. They are also defined differently. In contrast to various conceptions of poverty that seek its causes in the values and behaviors of individuals, the category of social exclusion stresses the social dimension—the impacts of a society that excludes and marginalizes. The author writes about the meaning of work in Polish society and gives examples of unemployed people’s feelings in connection with not having work, drawn from their own writings. She would like to see these viewpoints taken into consideration in sociological research.