CEFRES Team

Lucie Trlifajová: Research & CV

The Role of Social Protection in the Context of Rising Labour Market Precarity

Research area 2 – Norms & transgressions

Contact: lucie.trlifajova@cefres.cz

Past two decades had brought series of changes to the Czech economy with important implications for the labour market. One of its effects, which did not so far attract much attention, is rising levels of precarious forms of employment, in-work poverty and structural, long-term unemployment, which is often spatially concentrated and unequally impacting different groups of the population. In my PhD project, I focus on the relationship between these labour market changes and the construction of systems of social protection for low-income households in the Czech Republic. This scheme has low public legitimacy and overall trends in its construction follow increasingly punitive and controlling, workfarist logic and seem to disregard every day realities of social assistance recipients.

To develop understanding of concrete process that shape the systems of social protection, I currently work on two studies. First of them is an analysis of Zero tolerance policies in Northern Bohemian, local policies of control of spatially segregated Roma population, in which the social polices targeted towards low-income households, and particularly the payment of social benefits, had turn into central controlling tool within a complex regime of control and disciplination of Roma inhabitants of the city. The second one, Norms and criteria of Labour offices employee is an in-depth study of norms and categories used by the administrators of the minimum income schemes in decaying (post-)industrial regions characterized by low-wages and high level of unemployment.

What role does the system of social protection play in these local contexts? How is it legitimized and contested both on discursive and policy level?

CV

Formation

2015—: PhD candidate in Public policy, Faculty of Social Science, Charles University, Prague

2009: MA in Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague

Summer/winter schools

2016 The Politics of the Welfare State in an Era of Reform: Voters, Interest Groups, and Political Responsiveness University of Oslo, Norway

2016 The Nordic Welfare State Model in a Comparative and European Perspective: Still the blue-print for growth, well-being and social cohesion? University of Oslo, Norway

2011 Theories of Ethnicity and Nationalism: Historical and Contemporary Debates, REMESO, Norrkoping, Sweden

2011 Memory, Culture and Identity – Summer School on Cultural Sociology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

2010 Citizenship, Ethnic Division and Social Exclusion: National and Post-national Approaches, REMESO, Norrkoping, Sweden

Employment

2011—: Researcher, policy analyst, Centre for Social Issues–SPOT

September 2017—: Researcher, Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences

2009–2015: Researcher, policy analyst, project coordinator, Multicultural Centre Prague

Current research grants and projects

2016-2018: Role of the social protection in the context of rising precarity. Grant Agency of the Charles University.

2016-2017: Research grant, Centre for doctoral studies, Faculty of Social Science, Charles University

Teaching

2014-2016. Lecturer at Charles University, Faculty of Art (with M Canek), Course: Národy a migrace (Nations and migration)

Publications

Articles
  • Hurrle J, L Sykora, L Trlifajova, P Kucera (2016). Socially excluded localities revisited. Geography 121/4
  • Trlifajova L (2011). Význam transnacionální perspektivy pro studium migrace (The Importance of Transnational Perspective in the Research of Migration). Studia Ethnologica 2011/2.
Reports in ENG
  • Trlifajova L, Canek M, Dumont A (2016). Czech Republic. SOLIDAR Social Progress Watch 2016 – A guideline to a rights-based approach for the European Pillar of Social Rights, Brusel: SOLIDAR Accessible online: http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=17442&langId=en
  • Hurrle J, Ripka S, Felcmannová L, Pixová M, Štěpánková M, Trlifajova L (2013): Civil Society Monitoring Reports on the Implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy – the Czech Republic. Budapest: Decade for Roma Inclusion Secretariat and Open Society Foundations. Accessible online: http://www.romadecade.org/civilsocietymonitoring
Selected Reports and analysis in CZ