Accepting non-employment

Knowledge Collection Networks and Allies
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First my family. While they have done little to give me direction, they have supported me and have not pushed me into a role of finacial subsistence for the sake of it. Without this support i would probably have a job. Proabably one I would be unhappy with. As an engineer interested in international development the usual entry route is many years in an engineering firm. But I opted to go gather experience of the voluntary sector first. I can’t credit to any particular actions on their part why I have not tied my self worth to employment. Their support and this quirk has kept me happy despite the times and my own joblessness.

Secondly, Vinay Gupta. He has mentored me through quandries about life. Helped me decontruct interactions, personalities, behaviours and events. Pointed me at directions for learning as well as sources. Taught me strategies and way of apporaching people and problems. Introduced me to interesting people. Some with great opportunities. I was exposed to examples of how one may be productive, the non mentarily determined ecosystems and through my interactions with him I made a distinction, though vague, in my mind about the differences of unemployment and non-employment. At its most basic the distinction is how one views the state of not having a job. either as an afflition to be imediately remedied (unemployment) or a state that leaves one to navigate the world differently.

Mostly he has shown me to be even more uncompromising in how I choose to live and that even those who deviate drastically from the comman model of employability are still able to navigate the world and lead fulfilling lives

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Forms of non-employment? Help needed to validate research

You must feel really lucky for having found a mentor like Vinay…! Do you  think you’re following in his footsteps when it comes to living with minimum means and using the money in a gig to support yourself through the next…?

This is an important distinction: unemployment and non-employment… There’s also the issue of underemployment - which is working part time, or on a contractual basis to support yourself, and potentially the rest of the time really doing what you feel brings meaning. Is this the same as non-employment in your version?  Have you read the research summary of Edgeryders Making a Living? That one will feed into the hanbook we’re building to address the policy making community, so we’d like to make sure that the community is on board with how we are depicted…  I would be curious if there is something you would add (you can do it as a comment in the report), there’s a section illustrating how Edgeryders search for meaning in their work, even at the cost of marginalisation and precarity…