@misc{Pilch_Szymon_Informatycy_2023,
 author={Pilch, Szymon},
 copyright={Copyright by Szymon Pilch},
 address={Wrocław},
 howpublished={online},
 school={University of Wroclaw},
 year={2023},
 language={pol},
 abstract={The relationship between work, the economy and technology is subject to constant social change. In the last few decades – especially after the Second World War, with the advent of Fordism and immediately afterwards of post-Fordism – these transformations have been characterised by increasing dynamism. Production and consumption have been transformed globally. Work has also changed. Its characteristics vary according to the industries and segments of the economy, which today – since around the 1990s – increasingly resembles the characteristics of the digital economy, which is part of the conditions of the fourth industrial revolution. Work experiences are also similarly differentiated, subject to a variety of – including technological – circumstances. On the one hand, the former are conditioned at the micro-, meso-, macro- and mega-social levels in economic, cultural and social dimensions. On the other hand, work experiences have a reciprocal effect on the aforementioned levels of reality, as individuals, having agency, shape the social world that surrounds them. Work experiences form the framework of the reality in which people exist, and the social boundaries and meanings of human activity such as work also determine the world of non-work life. The dissertation analyses the work experience of IT professionals in the BPO industry in Poland (PL) from a sociological perspective. An attempt has been made to examine the meaning that IT professionals ascribe to their work in the conditions of Polish 'patchwork capitalism', one of the varieties of capitalism originating from the bloc of post-socialist countries of the CEE region. The interest in IT professionals, the transformation of the economy and capitalism in PL, and the BPO industry is particularly relevant because of the close relationship that occurs between the processes of globalisation of capitalism, the spatial displacement of international capital and technology, the institutional conditions of the labour market in PL and the position of the national economy in the international economic structure. This relationship also includes accompanying phenomena, such as the outsourcing of business services, the social consequences of which are still not sufficiently explored. Concluding, the dissertation shows that development of the BPO industry in PL is presented by various actors, such as politicians, the media, the industry employers, some of social researchers, as well as by employees themselves, in terms of an economic triumph. PL, on the other hand, has been and continues to be described as one of the local countries with a leading economy and advanced information and communication technologies enabling the development of innovative projects and products. Under such conditions, an idealised image of working in BPO is created. IT professionals, in turn, are seen as structurally privileged and the profession itself as prestigious and highly paid. I refer to this myth as the myth of the 'IT aristocracy'. The dissertation seeks to verify this category and show that the experiences of BPO workers are heterogeneous. A typology consisting of three types of work experience in BPO centres in PL was reconstructed. These are: ‘enthusiasm’, ‘instrumentalism’ and ‘disenchantment’. For narrators with long work experience, ‘enthusiasm’ changes over time into ‘instrumentalism’ and also instrumental ‘orientations’ towards work in the context of non-work life. ‘Instrumentalism’ then turns into ‘disenchantment’. The reasons for this are biographical context, organisational and macro-structural factors. On the one hand, ‘disenchantment’ stems from a loss of meaning of the work and tasks performed on a daily basis in projects. On the other, it is rooted in years of neglect regarding the separation of life and work spheres. Thirdly, the reason for 'disenchantment' is also the lack of opportunities for further skill development due to technological limitations of companies.},
 type={tekst},
 title={Informatycy w firmach świadczących usługi dla biznesu w Polsce: socjologiczne studium doświadczenia pracy},
 keywords={sociology of work, business process outsourcing, business services industry, IT professionals, digitalisation, software production},
}