Job expectations theorised as "feasible work"

The distance between unemployment and employment is highly variable and the path to be followed can be more or less unpredictable. Transitions between the two statuses have been extensively studied, much more than the hoped-for, targeted or anticipated job. How do unemployed people conceive their occupational goals and adjust them during their job search. Exploring this question, our empirical investigations have shown the general nature of the tensions between what they prefer and what they imagine they can achieve, between desires and realism. Here we develop the concept of "feasible work" to describe and model these tensions and adjustments. In doing so, we underline that these revisions do not only involve the unemployed themselves, but also the activation policies, the labour market actors, the networks of relatives, and any others contributing to give meaning to job search experiences. We therefore examine these processes through their institutional, relational and biographical dimensions.