Abstrakt:
The aim of the article is to analyse social relations of people experiencing unemployment in today’s Polish society on the basis of the data collected as a part of the “Memoirs of the Unemployed” project. In this paper, we investigate three types of relations: with family, with friends and acquaintances, and with labour market institutions. Our analysis shows that the experience of unemployment has a specific impact on social relations, both within the family and with other people. They are characterised by great ambivalence, which results from the fact that although they are a source of support, they are often based on a lack of understanding of the situation of people experiencing unemployment, and even involve stigmatisation. The relations with representatives of institutions are perceived by the research participants as instrumental and stigmatising.
