Showing papers in "Work, Employment & Society in 2018"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors take stock of the existing literature on precarity, highlighting the strengths and limitations of using precarity in the context of the special issue "In, Against and Beyond Precarity".
Abstract: In this Foreword to the special issue ‘In, Against and Beyond Precarity’ the guest editors take stock of the existing literature on precarity, highlighting the strengths and limitations of using th...
156 citations
TL;DR: The authors explores the contradictions and tensions that arise from differ opinions about the norm of precarious work in employment and social protection systems and explores the contradiction and tension that arises from them.
Abstract: Precarious work is increasingly considered the new ‘norm’ to which employment and social protection systems must adjust. This article explores the contradictions and tensions that arise from differ...
131 citations
TL;DR: The latest fashion of "unconscious bias training" is a diversity intervention based on unproven suppositions and is unlikely to help eliminate racism in the workplace as mentioned in this paper, and knowing about bias does not a...
Abstract: The latest fashion of ‘unconscious bias training’ is a diversity intervention based on unproven suppositions and is unlikely to help eliminate racism in the workplace. Knowing about bias does not a...
124 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a case study of a regional Australian university, which underwent significant changes in 2007, the most notable being the introduction of performance appraisals, revealed evidence of symbolic violence: staff compliance with and complicity in the changes.
Abstract: This article draws on the sociology of Bourdieu to explore how academics respond to managerialist imperatives. Bourdieu’s metaphor of the game is applied to a case study of a regional Australian university, which underwent significant changes in 2007, the most notable being the introduction of performance appraisals. In-depth interviews (N=20) reveal evidence of symbolic violence: staff compliance with and complicity in the changes. This is evident in the way that the interviewees, mostly early career academics, chose to play the game by concentrating their efforts on increasing their capital within the new order. To further support this argument, signs of resistance to the new regime were explored. Findings show that vocal resistance was sparse with silence, neglect and exit being the more realistic options. The article concludes that it is academics’ illusio, their unwavering commitment to the game, which neutralizes resistance by pitting colleagues against each other.
69 citations
TL;DR: This paper pointed out that employment situation, worker identity and legal rights are mistakenly taken as theoretical components of class formation, and refuted the precariat as a class, and pointed out the role of employment situation in class formation.
Abstract: In refuting Guy Standing’s precariat as a class, we highlight that employment situation, worker identity and legal rights are mistakenly taken as theoretical components of class formation. Returnin...
68 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore supply chain pressures in parcel delivery and how the drive to contain costs to preserve value in motion, including the costs of failed delivery, underpins contractual diffe...
Abstract: This article explores supply chain pressures in parcel delivery and how the drive to contain costs to ‘preserve value in motion’, including the costs of failed delivery, underpins contractual diffe...
50 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used two ethnographic retail case studies to investigate contemporary workplace control and highlight how flexible scheduling has serious consequences for workers and causes causes problems for the entire workforce.
Abstract: This article uses two ethnographic retail case studies to investigate contemporary workplace control. The findings highlight how flexible scheduling has serious consequences for workers and causes ...
49 citations
TL;DR: This article studied how gay and lesbian employees make sense of their homosexuality in the highly normative context of audit firms and revealed the subtle pressures exerted on those who possess concealable stigmatized identities.
Abstract: How do individuals choose to conceal a stigmatized attribute and what are the consequences of such a choice? We answer this question by looking at how gay and lesbian employees make sense of their homosexuality in the highly normative context of audit firms. As a first step, we unveil the subtle pressures exerted on those who possess concealable stigmatized identities. Homosexual auditors engage in partial or full concealment of their sexuality. They live in the fear of being misjudged and cast out of a context in which male values are tantamount. However, the efforts required to conceal create a situation of unrest, which eventually interferes with their social integration at work. We draw on rich ethnographic material in French audit firms, benefitting from the exogenous shock of a gay marriage bill. The study’s findings shed new light on audit as a gendered profession and the cost of concealing stigmatized invisible identities.
44 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that community gardening cannot be divorced from more regressive underlying economic and social processes accompanying neoliberal austerity policies, it does provide space for important forms of work that address social needs and advance community empowerment.
Abstract: The growth of community gardens has become the source of much academic debate regarding their role in community empowerment in the contemporary city. In this article, we focus upon the work being done in community gardens, using gardening in Glasgow as a case study. We argue that while community gardening cannot be divorced from more regressive underlying economic and social processes accompanying neoliberal austerity policies, it does provide space for important forms of work that address social needs and advance community empowerment. In developing this argument we use recent geographical scholarship concerning the generative role of place in bringing together individuals and communities in new collective forms of working. Community gardens are places that facilitate the recovery of individual agency, construction of new forms of knowledge and participation, and renewal of reflexive and proactive communities that provide broader lessons for building more progressive forms of work in cities.
43 citations
TL;DR: Multi-level analyses based on the European Social Survey show that both men and women perform more housework when unemployed, however, the extra domestic work for unemployed women is greater than for unemployed men.
Abstract: Unemployment, especially in insecure times, has devastating effects on families, but it is not clear what happens to domestic work. On the one hand, unemployment frees up time for more housework by...
42 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine employers' graduate careers websites and explore the discursive construction of the "employable graduate", arguing that these websites function as a mechanism of anticipatory socialization through which HRM practices extend managerial control into the transitional space of pre-recruitment, with the aim of engaging students' consent to particular norms of employability.
Abstract: A discourse of employability saturates the higher education sector in the UK. Government and employers call on universities to produce employable graduates who are attractive to the labour market and can sustain their future marketability by taking responsibility for protean self-development. While the neoliberal assumptions behind this call have attracted robust critique, the extent to which employers shape graduating students’ subjectivities and sense of worth as (potentially employable) workers has escaped scrutiny. Inspired by Foucauldian analyses of human resource management (HRM) practices, this article examines employers’ graduate careers websites and explores the discursive construction of the ‘employable graduate’. The article contends that these websites function as a mechanism of anticipatory socialization through which HRM practices extend managerial control into the transitional space of pre-recruitment, with the aim of engaging students’ consent to particular norms of employability.
TL;DR: This paper explored the relationship between maternal employment and adult daughters' and sons' employment and found that maternal employment was positively associated with both their daughters and their sons' and mothers' employment.
Abstract: Analyses relying on two international surveys from over 100,000 men and women across 29 countries explore the relationship between maternal employment and adult daughters’ and sons’ employment and ...
TL;DR: In this article, qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with managers working in large corporations in liberal market (USA, UK) and coordinated market (Japan) societies are analysed.
Abstract: The article addresses the debate over insecurity and precarity in managerial work. It notes while some commentators suggest advanced economies are characterized by managerial job insecurity, others argue the same economies possess stable managerial tenure rates. To make sense of this conundrum, qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with managers working in large corporations in liberal-market (USA, UK) and coordinated-market (Japan) societies are analysed. The aim is to assess whether sensitivity to managerial job insecurity is widespread and if so reflects wider corporate strategies of ‘contrived competition’ and ‘manufactured uncertainty’. It is argued such notions can influence managers’ understanding of their work situation through (re)producing narratives of employment precarity. Contrary to the message from many database and questionnaire studies, evidence from this international and longitudinal study suggests awareness of job insecurity is indeed widespread and does affect managers’ views of their employment situation and prospects.
TL;DR: In this article, a critical disability studies lens debate challenges a dominant element of many health and well-being (H&WB) initiatives, and concludes that a social model of disability and workplace wellbeing is needed to focus debate on the social, economic and political causes of ill health and dis-ability in workplaces under neo-liberal austerity.
Abstract: Health and well-being (H&WB) initiatives have increasingly appeared in workplaces, but are the subject of surprisingly little critical analysis. The terms H&WB have also become positively embedded in Human Resource Management (HRM) and academic vocabularies, often displacing disability, which, it is argued, is (wrongly) regarded as a negative descriptor. This article challenges the sometimes taken-for-granted assumption that employer-led H&WB initiatives are inherently positive. It considers how they are being used to undermine statutory trade union health and safety representatives, reinforce concepts of normalcy and ableism in respect of worker lifestyle and impairments, and individualize/medicalize experiences of workplace stress. Utilizing a critical disability studies lens debate challenges a dominant element of many H&WB programmes – employee resilience – and concludes that a social model of disability and workplace well-being is needed to focus debate on the social, economic and political causes of ill-health and dis-ability in workplaces under neo-liberal austerity.
TL;DR: In this article, a cumulative approach to contemporary manifestations of unfree labour based on an exploration of dynamic combinations of common elements of the phenomenon is proposed, and the authors propose a cumulative framework for the analysis of such phenomena.
Abstract: This article proposes a cumulative approach to contemporary manifestations of unfree labour based on an exploration of dynamic combinations of common elements of the phenomenon. This understanding ...
TL;DR: This article examined how educational differences in work-care patterns among mothers with young children in Germany changed between 1997 and 2013 and found that since the mid-2000s, Germany has undergone a paradi...
Abstract: This study examines how educational differences in work-care patterns among mothers with young children in Germany changed between 1997 and 2013. Since the mid-2000s, Germany has undergone a paradi...
TL;DR: The authors used intersectionality and colour/cultural racism to argue that the labour market experience of British-Muslim women is multiply determined via criteria of ascription such as ethnicity, migration status, race and religion rather than criteria of achievement.
Abstract: This article aims to explain the labour market penalties among Muslim women in Britain. It draws on theories of intersectionality and colour/cultural racism to argue that the labour market experience of British-Muslim women is multiply determined via criteria of ascription such as ethnicity, migration status, race and religion rather than criteria of achievement. The study uses data from the Labour Force Survey (2002–2013) with a large sample (N=245,391) of women aged 19–65 years. The overarching finding suggests that most Muslim women, regardless of their multiple ascriptive identities, generation and levels of qualifications, still face significant penalties compared with their White-British Christian counterparts. The penalties for some groups, such as Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black-Muslim women, are harsher than for Indian and White-Muslim women, demonstrating how different social markers and multiple identities have contingent relationships to multiple determinants and outcomes.
TL;DR: In this paper, a cross-national comparative study of local government best practice cases of socially responsible procurement in Denmark, Germany and the UK is presented, where the authors examine the role of social responsibility in local government procurement.
Abstract: Through a cross-national comparative study of local government ‘best practice cases’ of socially responsible procurement in Denmark, Germany and the UK, this article critically examines the role of...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss new patterns of precariarization and informalization beyond waged labour, and present a new era of social reproduction based on a new paradigm of precarity.
Abstract: This article discusses new patterns of precariarization and informalization beyond waged labour. Against a backdrop of multiple social changes, there is a new era of social reproduction based on th...
TL;DR: The authors argue that the routinisation thesis expects technology to hollow out the middle of the employment structure, leading to a uniform pattern of polarisation across affluent countries, and argue that oc...
Abstract: The routinisation thesis expects technology to hollow out the middle of the employment structure, leading to a uniform pattern of polarisation across affluent countries. This article argues that oc...
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of collective agreements in institutionalising and legitimizing the undervaluation of women's work is analyzed, and the impact of collective agreement on women's empowerment is discussed.
Abstract: This article analyses the role of collective agreements in institutionalising and legitimising the undervaluation of work conducted by women. The undervaluation of women’s work has been identified ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how male rural-to-urban migrant taxi drivers' experience of a loss of control over their working conditions and increasing financial insecurity are driven by state regulation.
Abstract: This article examines how male rural-to-urban migrant taxi drivers’ experience of a loss of control over their working conditions and increasing financial insecurity are driven by state regulation ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the differential impacts of marketisation and economic development on gender earnings inequality in reform-era urban China were examined based on data from the 2005 population mini-census.
Abstract: This article examines the differential impacts of marketisation and economic development on gender earnings inequality in reform-era urban China. Based on data from the 2005 population mini-census ...
TL;DR: A rare account of the working life of a sports psychologist in the English Premier League, the elite division in English professional football, is given in this paper, where it is shown how members of emerging professions such as sports psychology are a new precariat.
Abstract: This article gives a rare account of the working life of a sports psychologist in the English Premier League, the elite division in English professional football It shows how members of emerging professions such as sports psychology are a new precariat John is more successful than many sports psychologists, but his job security is dependent on his continued ability to navigate managerial change: using his skills as a psychologist in the defence of his own employment but simultaneously keeping the (potentially sensitive) ‘psychology’ label of the work he does hidden until circumstances are propitious
TL;DR: Maternal employment is still below the overall EU recommended level of 60% in many European countries as mentioned in this paper, and the individual, household and contextual circumstances under which mothers of mothers of ch...
Abstract: Maternal employment is still below the overall EU recommended level of 60% in many European countries. Understanding the individual, household and contextual circumstances under which mothers of ch...
TL;DR: The authors explored trends in part-time job quality for women up to and beyond the recession of 2008/9, and asked whether post-recessionary job quality remains differentiated by occupational class.
Abstract: Britain has long stood out in Europe for its extensive but low quality part-time labour market dominated by women workers, who are concentrated in lower-level jobs demanding few skills and low levels of education, offering lower wage rates and restricted advancement opportunities. This article explores trends in part-time job quality for women up to and beyond the recession of 2008/9, and asks whether post-recessionary job quality remains differentiated by occupational class. A pre-recessionary narrowing of the part-time/full-time gap in job quality appears to have been maintained for the women in higher level part-time jobs, while part- and full-timers in lower-level jobs suffered the worst effects of the recession, signalling deepening occupational class inequalities among working women.
TL;DR: In this paper, a questionnaire survey compared principal kinds of work orientation, job content and mental well-being between self-employed and organisationally employed professional workers and found that self-employment was particularly associated with energised wellbeing in the form of job engagement.
Abstract: Drawing on psychology-derived theories and methods, a questionnaire survey compared principal kinds of work orientation, job content and mental well-being between self-employed and organisationally employed professional workers. Self-employment was found to be particularly associated with energised well-being in the form of job engagement. The presence in self-employment of greater challenge, such as an enhanced requirement for personal innovation, accounted statistically for self-employed professionals’ greater job engagement, and self-employed professionals more strongly valued personal challenge than did professionals employed in an organisation. However, no between-role differences occurred in respect of supportive job features such as having a comfortable workplace. Differences in well-being, job content and work orientations were found primarily in comparison between self-employees and organisational non-managers. The study emphasises the need to distinguish conceptually and empirically between diff...
TL;DR: Despite the poor working conditions, between 2003 and 2007 Chilean miners organized the longest and largest strikes in the country since the 1980s, obtaining one of the most important recent victor as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Despite the poor working conditions, between 2003 and 2007 Chilean miners organised the longest and largest strikes in the country since the 1980s, obtaining one of the most important recent victor...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined cross-national differences in well-being and mental health between unemployed people who engage in voluntary work and those who do not, using multilevel data from the European Quality of Life Survey on unemployed individuals in 29 European countries and other external sources.
Abstract: Due to increasing labour market flexibilisation a growing number of people are likely to experience unemployment and, as a consequence, lower mental health and well-being. This article examines cross-national differences in well-being and mental health between unemployed people who engage in voluntary work and those who do not, using multilevel data from the European Quality of Life Survey on unemployed individuals in 29 European countries and other external sources.
This article finds that, regardless of their voluntary activity, unemployed people have higher levels of well-being and mental health in countries with more generous unemployment benefits. Unexpectedly, the results also suggest that regular volunteering can actually be detrimental for mental health in countries with less generous unemployment benefits. This article concludes that individual agency exercised through voluntary work can partially improve well-being but the generosity of unemployment benefits is vital for alleviating the negative mental health effects of unemployment.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the patch-working strategies of migrant entrepreneurs as a form of social agency and show that, despite the highly constrained operating environment, the exercise of Social agency can help to cushion against disadvantage and to rework their current conditions through patchworking.
Abstract: This article examines the patch-working strategies of migrant entrepreneurs as a form of social agency. ‘Patch-working’ – the reliance on supplementary forms of income to support business activity – is often seen as a means of cushioning the financial vulnerability of small firms. However, the mechanisms and forms that patch-working takes tend to be overlooked. Evidence from 42 West Midlands’ firms shows that, despite the highly constrained operating environment, the exercise of social agency can help to cushion against disadvantage and to rework their current conditions through patch-working. This allows for business growth, and even transformational growth in some cases, rather than sheer survival. Even so, our findings show that the agency of migrant entrepreneurs brings about only minor improvements in revenue and is certainly not capable of fundamentally changing either the nature of the sector or the structure of the labour market in which they are embedded.