Identity work and the `unemployed' worker: age, disability and the lived experience of the older unemployed

Abstract

This article seeks to explore how older individuals negotiate and manage their selfidentity in relation to work whilst situated outwith paid employment. After reviewing the current positions of the older unemployed in the UK, noting the substantial overlap between age and disability, we turn our attention to conceptualising the lived experiences of individuals through exploring 'identity work' as a means of understanding a non-working work identity. Based upon focus group interviews, our empirical analysis focuses on key dimensions of participants' identity practice and how they sought to manage the following social processes: imposed identities, crafting working identities; and contesting unfavourable working identities. The conclusion contextualises the findings against a backdrop of increasing individualistic discourses underpinning approaches to employability, closing with the policy implications arising from this study, and making suggestions for future research agendas.

“Activated, but Stuck”: Applying a Critical Occupational Lens to Examine the Negotiation of Long-Term Unemployment in Contemporary Socio-Political Contexts

“…Our findings also point to the limits of approaches that individualize and homogenize the solutions for long-term employment [15,17]. Even if such approaches may foster taking up the subjectivity of an "activated" job seeker, they fail to address, and often obscure, the diversity of socio-politically shaped barriers that have emerged in this and previous studies, including discrimination tied to characteristics such as age, criminal history, or being an injured worker; the dissolution of standard employment relationships and the rise of precarious forms of work; inadequate public transportation systems; and limited housing options for those with restricted incomes [15,25,31,37].…”

“…Even if such approaches may foster taking up the subjectivity of an "activated" job seeker, they fail to address, and often obscure, the diversity of socio-politically shaped barriers that have emerged in this and previous studies, including discrimination tied to characteristics such as age, criminal history, or being an injured worker; the dissolution of standard employment relationships and the rise of precarious forms of work; inadequate public transportation systems; and limited housing options for those with restricted incomes [15,25,31,37]. Taking age as one example, there is a substantial body of evidence pointing to ageism as a factor contributing to long-term unemployment and age-based discrimination in hiring, training and retention practices cannot be overcome through individual activation [54][55][56].…”

“…In addition, utilizing critical discourse analysis and situational analysis enabled us to work against dominant discursive constructions of unemployment, consistent with neoliberal individualization, that locate the problem within attributes of individual participants such as motivational level, poor choices, or inactivity [2,15]. Such approaches helped us look at how the situation of "being stuck" within and outside the work domain is shaped in and through transactions with particular socio-politically shaped barriers.…”

“…Riach and Loretto's qualitative study of employment support services in Scotland highlighted "the subtle complexities of the barriers to successful implementation of government policies designed to increase employment among the older out-of-work" [15] (p. 113). Particularly when expected to take up low-paid, low-skilled jobs, Riach and Loretto's participants faced several challenges to maintaining an acceptable working identity while simultaneously ensuring financial survival via compliance with benefits programs' activity expectations.…”

Measuring Employability for Disadvantaged Unemployed People? Evidence from Survey and Register Data

“…It could also suggest that the group may be too diverse for a single measure of employability to capture key aspects of what impacts re-employment chances. This point is supported by a qualitative study on older unemployed workers in the UK describing a complex experienced reality of, for example, how they experience being viewed by others, including job centre officials and potential employers, compared with how they view themselves (Riach & Loretto, 2009). Additionally, this notion of potential discrepancies between unemployed workers and potential employers poses the question whether the demand side of employment plays a role in the findings being less-than-straight-forward to interpret.…”