‘Make do and mend’ after redundancy at Anglesey Aluminium: critiquing human capital approaches to unemployment

Dobbins, Tony; Plows, Alexandra; Lloyd-Williams, Huw

doi:10.1177/0950017013491454

Cited by 24 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Research on the image consultancy industry suggests that aesthetic labouring extends beyond retail and hospitality work and includes professions such as accountancy and law, where employees are encouraged to become 'made up' to conform to client, employer and societal images of the professional body (Wellington and Bryson, 2001: 941). Following these approaches, this article draws on Bourdieu's interrelated concepts of field, habitus and capital to develop a more nuanced understanding of 'employability' that can adequately disentangle 'the complexity and diversity of skill as a concept' (Dobbins et al, 2014: 519).…”

Section: 'Employability' Human Capital and Ageismmentioning

confidence: 98%

‘Rusty, invisible and threatening’: ageing, capital and employability

Bowman

McGann

Kimberley

et al. 2016

Work, Employment and Society

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Levels of mature-age unemployment and under-employment are increasing in Australia, with older jobseekers spending longer unemployed than younger jobseekers. This article focuses on two key explanations of the difficulties confronting older jobseekers: human capital theory, which focuses on the obsolescence of older workers' job skills, and ageism in employment. Drawing upon narrative interviews with older Australians, it critically engages with both these understandings. Using a Bourdieusian analysis, it shows how ageing intersects with the deployment of different forms of capital that are valued within particular labour market fields to shape older workers' 'employability'. By examining how class, gender and age intersect to structure experiences of marginalization, it questions conventional analyses that see older workers as discriminated against simply because they are older.

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Section: 'Employability' Human Capital and Ageismmentioning

confidence: 98%

‘Rusty, invisible and threatening’: ageing, capital and employability

Bowman

McGann

Kimberley

et al. 2016

Work, Employment and Society

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show abstract

“…For instance, households impacted by job loss may reduce consumer spending to cope with lost income (Dobbins et al. ). Yet, because resilient acts are often reactive and do not directly challenge exploitative social relations they can “support the general trajectory of the developments that necessitated these acts in the first place” (Katz :246).…”

Section: Conceptualising Agency In Labour Geographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Labour Geographies of Workplace Restructuring: An Intra‐Labour Analysis

Warren

2018

Antipode

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Informed by labour geography's thrust to situate workers as active subjects of analysis, this article examines lived experiences of restructuring at Australia's single largest industrial workplace. Drawing on extended ethnographic research, the article traverses three restructuring outcomes faced by workers and their families: (1) job retention; (2) redundancy; and (3) re-employment. Amid the turbulence and uncertainty of a major workplace restructuring episode, workers' different lived experiences illuminate uneven intra-labour power relations. As capitalist workplaces are re-organised and labour processes redefined, more conflictual and divisive relationships often develop among groups of workers differentially positioned within the hierarchical labour markets of large firms. Emphasising restructuring episodes as generative contexts for grounded labour geographies research, the article develops intra-labour agency as a critical analytical frame to explore more deeply the agency implications of workplace structures, co-worker relationships, and social life matters that shape workers' capacities for action inside and beyond workplaces.Resumen: Informado por el impulso de la geograf ıa del trabajo para situar a los trabajadores como sujetos activos de an alisis, este art ıculo examina las experiencias vividas de reestructuraci on en el m as grande lugar de trabajo industrial de Australia. Bas andose en la investigaci on etnogr afica extendida, el art ıculo atraviesa tres resultados de reestructuraci on que enfrentan los trabajadores y sus familias: (1) retenci on de empleo; (2) redundancia; y (3) reempleo. En medio de la turbulencia e incertidumbre de un importante episodio de reestructuraci on en el lugar de trabajo, las diferentes experiencias vividas de los trabajadores iluminan las desiguales relaciones de poder intralaborales. A medida que los lugares de trabajo capitalistas se reorganizan y los procesos laborales se redefinen, las relaciones conflictivas y divisivas se desarrollan a menudo entre grupos de trabajadores posicionados diferencialmente dentro de los mercados laborales jer arquicos de las grandes empresas. Al enfatizar los episodios de reestructuraci on como contextos generativos para la investigaci on de geograf ıas laborales fundamentadas, el art ıculo desarrolla la agencia intralaboral como un marco anal ıtico cr ıtico para explorar m as profundamente las implicaciones institucionales de las estructuras del lugar de trabajo, las relaciones del compañero de trabajo y la vida social que moldean las capacidades de acci on de los trabajadores dentro y m as all a de los lugares de trabajo.

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“…As the next section explores, there is another side to Charity A's work which ensures that unemployed individuals have to 'make do' with the choices imposed upon them (Dobbins et al, 2013).…”

Section: Overcoming Resistance and Approaching Choicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although supposedly "owned" by the unemployed individual, the document can be "reviewed and updated as the DWP sees fit" (Daguerre and Etherington, 2014: 38). Claimant commitments deliberately reduce choice and enforce a demandside approach that focuses on the development of human capital, employability and adaptability to the labour market (Dobbins et al, 2013). Deviation from the enforced 'choices' is penalised via sanctions.…”

Section: A Changing Policy Framework For Choicementioning

confidence: 99%

Capabilities and Choices of Vulnerable, Long-Term Unemployed Individuals

Beck

2017

Work, Employment and Society

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This paper discusses the issue of choice as it applies to long-term unemployed and vulnerable individuals. It argues that the combination of poor employment opportunities, requirements, compulsions and sanctions has not merely reduced available choice for individuals with multiple barriers to re-/join the labour market but has also resulted in curtailed decision-making abilities when it comes to their pathways into employment. The outcomes can include protective resistance as a response to the extent of regulation, which may undermine engagement in job search and related activities. Despite attempts by benevolent staff in a charity to provide support and enhance capabilities that result in the overcoming of protective resistance, they operate within a broader institutional framework of choice as set by government policy. The end result is compulsion, not choice.

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‘Make do and mend’ after redundancy at Anglesey Aluminium: critiquing human capital approaches to unemployment

Cited by 24 publications

References 27 publications

‘Rusty, invisible and threatening’: ageing, capital and employability

‘Rusty, invisible and threatening’: ageing, capital and employability

Labour Geographies of Workplace Restructuring: An Intra‐Labour Analysis

Capabilities and Choices of Vulnerable, Long-Term Unemployed Individuals

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