On 22 June 2023, Fiona Köster defended her thesis "The effect of major life events on labour market outcomes and well-being." and obtained her doctorate in social sciences from the University of Lausanne. The team of the LIVES Centre warmly congratulates her on this achievement!
In her thesis, Fiona Köster examines the effects of three major life events on individuals’ material and non-material well-being. The events that she focuses on are mass redundancy, the transition from employment to retirement, and the impact of social restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a life course perspective, which emphasises the importance of social, cultural, structural, and historical context, she investigates which factors contribute to individuals’ resilience or lead to vulnerability. A longitudinal approach, which examines short-term, mid-term and long-term interdependencies is used to observe the effects of these three life events on individuals’ material and non-material well-being.
One key contribution of the presented work is the development, collection, and analysis of a tailor-made follow-up survey, which retraces the occupational trajectories of workers who experienced mass redundancy during the Great Recession. We explore the objective and subjective outcomes that the plant closure of five mid-sized manufacturing companies in Switzerland have, including changes of former workers’ employment status, income, life satisfaction and career success more than a decade after plant closure. The second part of this thesis focuses on loneliness, a non-material aspect of well-being, and investigates whether entering retirement or experiencing COVID-19-related social restrictions affect its prevalence. These chapters look at short-term changes in loneliness rather than the long-term evolution.
President of the jury :
- M. Jean-Christophe GRAZ, Professor and Faculty Vice-Dean
Thesis director :
- M. Daniel OESCH, Professor at the University of Lausanne
Members of the jury :
- Mme Leen VANDECASTEELE, Professor at the University of Lausanne
- M. Matthias STUDER, Associate Professor at the à Institut de Démographie et Socioéconomie (IDESO) of the University of Geneva
- Mme Anna BARANOWSKA-RATAJ, Professor at the University of Umea, Sweden
- Mme Vanessa GASH, Lecturer at the London University, Great Britain