seven - Male journeys into uncertainty

Summary

When you start off for Ithaki your wish should be that the road be long, full of adventures, full of knowledge…. You should always have in your mind Ithaki; to arrive there is your target but don't hurry on the journey. It is better if it lasts long and you arrive in old age at the island, rich in what you gained throughout the journey. Don't expect Ithaki to offer you anything; Ithaki offered you the wonderful journey and without Ithaki you would not have started out on your journey. (C.P. Kavafy, ‘Ithaki’, Poetry 1905-1915)

The notion of Ithaki for most men and women has been historically and socially differentiated, the result of socially determined gender expectations and personal and social constraints. Men's journeys in this century have typically been associated with their lives outside the home and at work (Seccombe, 1986). However, the social and economic changes of the past three decades have made many men feel that the journey to the island is no longer a wellcharted one. Journeys in modern capitalist states have become increasingly uncertain. They depend on the ability of the individual to negotiate the Scylla and Charybdis of unemployment, socioeconomic change, increasing stress and competitiveness, ambivalent gender relationships and the storms of insecurity that undermine the helmsman and make him wonder about his final destination.

This chapter aims to present aspects of two life journeys in contemporary Europe, dealing in distinctive ways with a changing social world in contrasting social, cultural and personal contexts. The first man, Dionysios, remains all his life within an apparently stable, traditional setting despite living in Greece, a country marked by rapid socioeconomic changes. The second, Bernard, has spent his life in constantly altering circumstances and work environments in France, from industrial to post-industrial and finally to postmodern. In France, during the 1960s when Bernard began working, industry and industrial employment constituted the essential structure for the formation of its class and socioeconomic system and marked the political and trades union relationships during this period. The late 1970s onwards saw the start in France (but not in Greece) of a radical restructuring of industry, the rapid growth of the service sector and a crisis in employment. Retraining and welfare support helped to restructure the labour market and assist those most affected.