Context of Social Relations “Employers – Students” and “Respondents – Interviewers” in a Situation of Demand for Work Studies

Abstract

The  basic  aim  of  this  article  is  the  analysis  of  factors  which  shape  the  process  of  implementation  of  social  research  directed  to  employers;  the  subject  of  these  studies  are  the  characteristic  of  the  demand  for  work  of  people  with  higher  education.  The  assumption  of  the  specificity  of  these  kind  of  studies  (social  rank  of  their  issues  and  abilities  of  application  of  acquired  knowledge  in  social-economic  and  educational  policies)  is  the  starting  point.  However,  the  main  place  is  occupied  by  relations  of  exchange  between  human  subjects  on  the  labour  market,  and  considerations  are  concentrated  on  the  importance  of  this  context  for  the  course  of  studies  and  achieved  results.  Representatives  of  employers  and  students  participate  in  the  research  process  in  double  roles.  Relations  that  result  from  the  fact  of  representing  the  part  of  the  demand  for  work  and  supply  (relation  of  value  exchange)  form  one  level;  the  other  is  the  participation  in  studies  (relation  of  information  exchange).  This  implies  a problem:  to  what  extend  the  context  shapes  the  way  respondents  and  interviewers  fulfill  their  roles,  how  the  communication  is  created  and  definitions  of  situation  are  formed.  Empirical  studied  conducted  by  the  author  in  1998  –  2010  in  Lublin  Province  constitute  the  basic  source  material.  The  projects  possessed  convergent  theoretical  and  methodological  assumptions.  The  analysis  corresponds  with  a current  trend  of  empirical  methodology  and  “good  practice”  in  social  studies.