Economic change, skills and the shifting horizons of social recognition: East German and Czech care workers remember the disruptive 1990s

In this chapter, I explore how East German and Czech care workers remember shifts in their work life during the 1990s. Despite the different modes of transformation, there are many similarities between the accounts given by care workers of both nationalities. Individuals reflecting on the ways in which their work lives evolved after 1989 recall neuralgic themes and topics, including small ruptures at work and processes of technological improvement, monetization and acceleration. They reference skills to link the period before and after 1989 in a meaningful way to create a sense of continuity and consistency in their coping methods for dealing with the difficulties of that time. The findings suggest we should recognize the significant role of skills as a meaning structure – or horizon of social recognition – by which people make sense of economic change in the past. The chapter is based on an analysis of semi-structured interviews with thirty East Germans and Czechs who were in their early twenties at the time of the 1989 revolutions.