This Master’s Thesis concerned itself with studying the effects of an economic crisis on Spanish university graduates. The aim was to consider the human cost of the crisis by using qualitative methods. The data consisted of six, semi-structured in-depth interviews with Spanish university graduates and it was then analysed by qualitative content analysis. To conceptualise the results of data analysis further, the theory peace of researcher Galtung of structural violence was used. The aim of the research is to answer the research question: How do the Spanish university graduates perceive structural violence in the context of the economic crisis?
Structural violence is present in lives of the interviewees as in general in the Spanish society. Inequality and injustice have increased during the economic crisis. Due to the budget cuts and reforms, people have unequal access to society’s resources, like the example of education shows. That is structural violence as Galtung (1969) defines it. The potential is constrained and thus, there is a considerable distance between the actual and the potential. Educated young people are either unemployed or employed in jobs that do not correspond their educational level and work in precarious labour conditions. Structural violence causes frustration, fear and insecurity among the interviewees. To handle structural violence, they have used different coping methods to survive, which are both practical and mental.
First of all, the interviewees make a division in speech between the time before the crisis and after the crisis. Something has changed in their lives and in the society around them. The future truly is uncertain for these people. However, it would be an exaggeration to say that the crisis is only to blame for structural violence that interviewees face. As the recent study on the effects of the economic crisis on Spanish university graduates shows, the crisis has not drastically worsened the situation of university graduates, as their situation was precarious already before the current crisis (Moreno, López
& Segado, 2012).
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Due to the characteristics of the dual labour market and the flexibilisation of labour relations, newcomers to the Spanish labour market have experienced discrimination since long before the year 2008. Temporary contracts, low salaries and precarious labour conditions have been a problem among university graduates, as the phenomenon of the 1000-euro generation indicates. In that sense, university graduates experienced structural violence in the Spanish labour market before the crisis. However, if violence is the distance between the potential and actual, between what could have been and what actually is (Galtung, 1969), this distance has grown as a direct result of the crisis. Working possibilities and economic resources are much more limited than before and their potential is more difficult to realise.
Frustration caused by the incapacity to realise one’s potential is obvious. Thus, the frustration is consequence of structural violence. Instead of living an independent life, the interviewees had to be economically dependent on their families and many of them had to move back to their parents after the crisis started. The labour instability produces instability in life in general and it prevents people from making plans in the long and short term. Their future perspectives have been eroded.
As the life changes for young people are limited for high unemployment rates and precarity, it is worth of asking whether there is an intergenerational gap developing in Spain. The unemployment rates for young people are double compared to the older part of the population. (Hurley, Storrie & Jungblut, 2011). Access to society’s resource, in this case to employment and pension schemes is not equal.
Structural violence is shown as different life changes and thus, as difference in standard of living. In Spain the difference shows between generations similarly as it shows between black and white neighbourhoods in big cities in the U.S (Väyrynen, 2009, 245). As Freire (2006) reminds in her book of the 1000euro Generation, for the first time in the history, the current young generation has lower standard of living than their parents. The access to society’s resources then depends on ones generation.
Thus, there is a risk of intergenerational conflict.
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Frustration among young people is not irrelevant. As an ILO (2010) report warns, collective frustration and low future prospects among youth is a risk to the general cohesion of a society. According to the study on Sri Lanka (Amarasuriya, Gündüz & Mayer, 2009), frustration caused by unemployment is a significant factor behind violent conflict. Structural violence can thus be converted into direct violence.
That does not necessarily mean that the same would happen in Spain, and the researchers of the Sri Lankan study call for more studies on the nexus between unemployment and violent conflict. This research cannot answer the question whether a violent conflict could also arise in Spain, although frustration is clearly in the air. That would be an interesting and topical research topic for future research. Even though the violence has been often related to the Arab Spring, violent protests have also taken place in Europe. Mostly in Greece the anti-crisis protests have had violent features but also in Spain the government has allowed the policy to use violent measures toward demonstrators. The theory of structural violence could offer some insights to understand the connection between youth frustration and violent conflict.
However, according to Galtung (1964), highly educated but unemployed people can have a key role in the process that turns structural violence into direct violence because they are in rank-disequilibrium.
They are thus most likely to mobilise politically in order to change their situation. In Spain, the 15-M – movement is an example of this kind of political mobilisation. It is important that the movement can find democratic and peaceful channels to make their voice heard. However, a recent study shows that the Spanish youth feel mistrust towards politicians and the political system in general (Moreno, López
& Segado, 2012). The interviewees of this study also show similar mistrust. They feel that the crisis has been an excuse to justify the cuts of their social rights. What is alarming is that this kind of distrust caused by economic crisis during early adulthood can be long-lasting (Giuliano & Spilimbergo, 2009).
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Applying a theory from the field of peace research to conceptualise interview data and people’s subjective experiences, was not a clear task. However, in the data there were various phenomena that could be detected as structural violence. Nevertheless, that is not to say that the theory really works to analyse the data. Another option is the definition of structural violence is so broad that it allows interpreting various features as structural violence. That is criticism presented by Boulding (1977, 83–
84). Regardless of this possible weakness of the theory, it still provides us new insights into the situation of Spanish university graduates during the economic crisis. It helps us to understand how the structures of society affect individuals and to recognise the links between social problems and violence.
Even though direct violence is not used, positive peace is not present in Spain as the society is violent in its structures. No wonder, that people feel frustration, fear and insecurity.
Some questions arise from the definition of structural violence. According to Galtung (1969), structural violence is caused by unequal power relations that consequently lead to unequal life changes.
Are there unequal power relations behind of the structural violence in Spain? To answer this question, another study on the nature of the crisis and political system in Spain would be needed. Bautista &
Muñoz (2004) explain that structural violence happens in a situation where the needs of the population are not satisfied when they easily would be in the case where the organisation or the circumstances would be different. Clearly, some of the central needs of the Spanish university graduates are not satisfied (such as the need to sustain oneself) and therefore, the definition of structural violence is met.
However, the other question still remains: is this situation because there really is no other option to handle the crisis than by impoverishing the younger generations?
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