The Memory Model Of Laid-off Workers’ Re-employment And Its Cultural Interpretation

The large-scale lay-off of workers in collective enterprises is the product of a series of economic and social reforms promoted in the late 1990 s.From layoff to reemployment,laid-off workers suffered benefits in the past and are still relatively vulnerable groups now.How their emotional cognition and value changes relate to the changes of The Times is an important research issue in sociology.A number of studies have shown that the narrative study of memory is an important clue to explore how the life experience of laid-off workers relates to the changes of times and social structural problems.Nowadays,most of the laid-off workers have entered the retirement stage of life,and the complete study of their laid-off and re-employment memory is to grasp the above clues.Therefore,from the analysis of laid-off workers’ laid-off to re-employment memory,the following two questions are mainly explored:(1)By analyzing the theme and narrative structure of laid-off and re-employed workers’ memories,what are the characteristics of their laid-off and re-employed memories,and what are the factors that construct their collective memories?(2)On this basis,what cultural concepts are related to the characteristics of laid-off workers’ memory,and in what aspects? The common purpose of these two questions is to explore how workers can rebuild their understanding of past experiences and sources of meaning based on their current lives.In the process of field investigation,the author established and maintained contact with 23 laid-off workers by means of snowballing,collected data with in-depth interview method and participant observation method,and conducted narrative analysis of laid-off and re-employment memory of laid-off workers.On this basis,the characteristics of collective memory were explained from different aspects of a cultural concept.Based on the two questions raised and the analysis of the theme,characteristics and narrative structure of memory,three conclusions are drawn:(1)By analyzing the factors that construct laid-off workers’ memories,it is found that different diachronic identities are the different factors that construct the characteristics of laid-off workers’ re-employment memories.Two kinds of diachronic identities,"the bearer of reform costs" and "the striver of development in reform",construct two kinds of memory characteristics,"moral orientation" and "development orientation",which correspond to two types of memory,"internal revision memory" and "progressive memory" respectively.In structure,the memory of moral orientation shows the characteristics of "blurring" and "omitting" of conflict events,and the narrative curve shows a steady upward pattern.In structure,development-oriented memory is characterized by "Complete logic of cause and effect","Vivid details","Set the stage for the climax",and the narrative curve is fluctuating and ascending.(2)The current constructive factors,such as Living security,social relations,collective memory suppressing individual memory and social and cultural inertia,are ubiquitous in laid-off workers with different identities,creating conditions for the connection between the two types of memory and the cultural concept of "harmony".(3)"Internal revision memory" reflects the moraloriented concept of "self-cultivation" in "harmony" culture.Laid-off workers’ flexible application of moral standards in memory reflects the "moderate" connotation of "harmony"."Progressive memory" reflects the future-oriented developmental value orientation contained in "harmony" culture and the dialectical thinking method represented by "self-improvement".By understanding the various situations experienced by laid-off workers from the past to the present,the process of constructing the characteristics of collective memory is analyzed in connection with specific cultural concepts,in an attempt to provide new ideas for the discussion of the typification and conceptualization of the characteristics of collective memory from a cultural perspective,and at the same time,it is hoped to make efforts to provide realistic care for the specific living conditions and spiritual world of laid-off workers.