Paper short abstract:

The paper explores life stories of women workers who have spent their lives working in hard industry. By problematizing transition and looking at women working force this paper aims at questioning the ongoing imaginary of alternative economies, the meaning of hope and despair.

Paper long abstract:

The paper explores life stories of women workers who have spent their lives working in hard industry - a steel work company based in a provincial town of Sisak, Croatia. The idea of insecurity has a pervasive influence on lives of those women who have survived war, transition and economic challenges of the 90's and have met the uncertainties of economic decline that lasted for 20 years. During a time span of 20 years those women have seen their factory being crushed by war and internal socialist economic crisis, sold to the Russian investors at the beginning of 2001, after the first bankruptcy, retaken by the Government to be handled as socially sensible issue, and than resold to a USA- based steel factory in 2007. An intensive investment in the last four years has started a challenging process of factory reconstruction. The American owner has announced closing of the factory in the October of 2011.

By problematizing transition as space/time of insecurity and looking at women working force as of destined to be taken advantage of in the economies of social exclusion, this paper aims at questioning the ongoing imaginary of alternative economies. In order to see the process of hoping & despairing as a contingent metaphor this paper aims at answering the question what hope and despair mean to those woman today, when they face another row of financial cuts, collective redundancy, as well as governmental palliative promises in providing social security to citizens.