Relational work in Nicaragua’s low-wage labor market

• Published in: Socio-economic review 2021-01, Vol.19 (1), p.359-375
• Main Author: Ibañez, Lindsey M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1475-1461; 1475-147X
• DOI: 10.1093/ser/mwaa027

In low-wage labor markets, job seekers often rely on referrals from network members to find work. For job seekers, the challenge is to mobilize personal relationships to find work, and for contacts, the objective is to minimize risk while maintaining their relationships. Most of what we know about the low-wage job search comes from studies of societies with highly developed labor market institutions and social safety nets, leaving a gap in our understanding of less-institutionalized settings. This article analyzes the social processes through which job seekers and their contacts manage the risk and uncertainty of the low-wage labor market while managing their relationships with each other in Nicaragua, where steady employment is scarce and institutional supports are few. By applying the relational work framework, which is ideal for studying exchanges that occur among interpersonal relations in contexts of uncertainty, this study shows how job seekers and contacts pursue their goals of employment and risk management while maintaining their relations. Deceptive relational work is deployed by job seekers and contacts to preserve relationships when exchange is either impossible or undesirable, and the deceptive relational work of contacts disadvantages job seekers.