Today, Friday 19 September, Anna Kallos successfully defended her doctoral thesis in sociology at the Socialhögskolan’s Gamla köket, just a stone’s throw from the Department of Sociology in Lund.
Many of them don’t see their jobs as ‘real,’ and in my dissertation I examine how that affects their self-understanding.
Anna Kallos' thesis, titled Not a Real Job? Teenage Labor and Low-Wage Service Work in Sweden, explores teenagers’ part-time work in sectors such as retail and hospitality. By combining survey data from the Swedish Labour Force Surveys (2005–2019) with in-depth interviews with 40 upper secondary school students, Kallos sheds light on how young workers navigate working conditions often marked by low pay, insecurity, and unpaid labour.
“Teenagers play an important but often invisible role in the service sector workforce. Many of them don’t see their jobs as ‘real,’ and in my dissertation I examine how that affects their self-understanding,” says Anna Kallos.
The thesis shows that young people’s work experiences vary significantly depending on class, gender, and migration background. It highlights how teenagers themselves understand and justify their working conditions.
“Young people often describe their first job as a way to gain work experience for the future, which allows them to distance themselves from poor working conditions and unpaid labour,” says Anna Kallos.
The thesis contributes new knowledge about young people’s working lives in Sweden.
About the thesis
Anna Kallos has written a thesis entitled "Not a Real Job? Teenage Labor and Low-Wage Service Work in Sweden". Supervisors were Åsa Lundqvist and Anna Ilsøe.
Read more about the thesis in Lund University’s research portal.
