Working conditions and biographies of fairground operators

Funfairs constitute a specific labour market: The fairground enterprises and the workforce are highly mobile, working and living are not separated, and labour demand is highly volatile, thereby challenging how we understand the organisation and regulation of work as well as the recruitment and training of workers. Furthermore, enterprises are usually owned and run by families. As a result, these families transmit not only occupations, but lifestyles from generation to generation, engaging subsequent generations from early on with this form of work and living. The training and working conditions and the biographical processes of the transmission of the occupation and the lifestyle of fairground operators, which have hitherto not been studied sociologically yet, are the focus of the exploratory study funded by the Main Research Area “Transformation of contemporary societies” at the University of Duisburg-Essen.