16

The objective of this text is to examine the current evolutions of unemployment by focusing on the delimitation of its boundaries. This perspective, based on the conclusions of several socio-historical analyses, argues that its boundaries should be considered as progressive, fluctuating, and processual. The main hypothesis is that work on the boundaries of unemployment is dual. We successively examine this dynamic in its institutional and then its biographical dimension. The first dimension refers to the dynamics of norms and rules contributing to the establishment of social and legal statutes and to access to material resources (unemployment benefits, employment policies) particularly. The second dimension focuses on subjective experiences and identifications, including the meanings invested in the status of being unemployed (affiliations, identity claims) and projections for the future (reachable and valued positions). These two types of boundaries evolve contradictorily, with—respectively—a decrease and an increase in unemployment. Eventually, these opposite movements lead to a questioning of the endurance of the unemployment category.