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The Reputation Game: Searching for Low-Wage Work in Urban Nicaragua

Ibanez, Lindsey McKay
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1531305966893766

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Sociology.
Sociological studies of job searching have long observed that personal networks play an essential role in job matching, especially in low-wage labor markets. Previous research has also highlighted the importance of the job-seeker’s reputation for success in finding low-wage work. However, most of the research in this vein has focused on the outcome of the job search, leaving a gap in our understanding of the network processes involved in cultivating and mobilizing networks. Moreover, scholars have relied on the game-theoretic view of reputation, which defines reputation as information about quality that assist decision-making. This definition elides the fact that job-seekers are agents who actively shape their own reputations. In low-wage labor markets, job-seekers are trying to obtain job information and referrals from pre-existing network ties, making the low-wage job search a site of intensive relational work. Relational work refers to the processes through which actors navigate their interconnected social and economic lives. Finally, previous research has primarily focused on higher-income countries, which have more developed labor market institutions, leaving unexamined the job search in low-income countries. This dissertation examines the low-wage job search in Leon, Nicaragua, drawing upon in-depth interviews with 105 job-seekers and workers as well as 19 low-wage employers. I argue that Leon’s low-wage labor market reflects a reputation game, due to the importance of referrals and reputations in this context. This search game is the result of structural conditions that generate vulnerabilities for employers and workers alike: informality, instability, low surveillance, difficult working conditions, and a lack of formal credentials. These conditions generate the need for trust between employers and workers, giving rise to referral networks. Job-seekers play the reputation game by cultivating networks and reputations; in particular, they assert that they are honest, that they like to work, that they need work, and that they have no vice. These declarations of worthiness, made by job-seekers and contacts, reflect the interests of employers and exert a powerful force of social control on workers in Leon. Contacts providing referrals must balance a desire to help the job-seekers in their networks with the need to protect their own reputations. Thus, they develop relational work strategies, including differentiating job-seekers. Job-seekers must also balance their own economic interests with reputational concerns, so they develop strategies such as providing an acceptable explanation to contacts before quitting a job. Employers also differentiate the job-seekers in their networks, and they distance themselves from their employee’s decisions. This relational work allows these actors to build and mobilize referral networks without jeopardizing pre-existing relationships. However, not all job-seekers embrace the reputation game; some resist it by eschewing referral networks and searching directly. Instead of insisting on their worthiness, these job-seekers emphasize their rights as workers. While resistance was documented among men and women of all ages, resistance was more common among young women, who can obtain work at shops or at the export-zone factory by applying directly. Resisting the reputation game has a cost, as job-seekers are excluded from referral networks.
Steven Lopez (Advisor)
Rachel Dwyer (Committee Member)
Kammi Schmeer (Committee Member)
Timothy Bartley (Committee Member)
199 p.
Latin American Studies; Sociology
job search; labor markets; networks; qualitative research; Latin America; Nicaragua; relational work; embeddedness; economic sociology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ibanez, L. M. (2018). The Reputation Game: Searching for Low-Wage Work in Urban Nicaragua [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1531305966893766

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ibanez, Lindsey. The Reputation Game: Searching for Low-Wage Work in Urban Nicaragua. 2018. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1531305966893766.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ibanez, Lindsey. "The Reputation Game: Searching for Low-Wage Work in Urban Nicaragua." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1531305966893766

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1531305966893766
636
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.