The Precarious Drinking Game; How Do State and Non-State Institutions Create, Enhance and Influence the Precarity of Women Engaged in the Trago Business on Curaçao in 2019?

Abstract

This thesis provides an in-depth account of women working in the trago business on Curaçao and how the precariousness of their lives is influenced by state and non-state institutions. The research is based on fieldwork conducted between 17 March and 24 May 2019. It has focused on the various dimensions of precarity that characterise the lives of so-called trago girls. To identify the various dimensions of precarity, I have utilised Butler’s (2011: ii) conceptualisation of precarity and have broken it down in four elements, namely 1. precarity is a condition that has been politically induced; 2. within this created condition people are not met with adequate support; 3. this condition heightens the risk for people to be exposed to violence injury, death and aggression from state and non-state actors – poverty, displacement, starvation and disease; and 4. there is inadequate, or no, protection against such exhibitions of violence. This thesis aims to show lives can be characterised by an inter-play of various forms of precarity, arguably characterising the live with the term hyper-precarity. Furthermore, this thesis provides an in-depth account how various state and nonstate actors influence the different form of precarity characterising the lives of women working in snèks.