Las sombras de los futuros que ya no son

Abstract

Errenteria has historically been one of the main industrial cities in the Basque Country, which helped it reach full employment levels and job stability in the sixties and seventies, particularly regarding male industrial jobs, up until the mid-seventies, when the transition governments began restructuring industries, allegedly to prepare for the entry into the European Economic Community and for the challenge of a free market. The loss of thousands of jobs was followed by a deregularization of the labor market, which led to a great decrease in the standards of living, which was intensified by the financial crisis of 2008 and austerity policies. This article aims to show how, for the younger generations of this city, past futures keep casting shadows on the ways of viewing a future marked by an increasing uncertainty. In this sense, I discuss the common sense of “going backwards”, pointing out that going backwards seems to allude, not only to the crumbling of the achievements of past generations, but also to a confusing reconfiguration of what they can now expect of the future.