A self- governing reserve army of labour? The commodification of the young unemployed through welfare policy, practice and discourse

Louise Prendergast

doi:10.3351/ppp.2020.4244896377

Abstract

A self- governing reserve army of labour? The commodification of the young unemployed through welfare policy, practice and discourse

Highlights

This article explores the experiences and discourses of precarious work and welfare from the perspectives of young people who are unemployed or in precarious employment, and frontline staff broadly involved in welfare practices
A self- governing reserve army of labour? The commodification of the young unemployed through welfare policy, practice and discourse practices with non-guaranteed zero-hour contracts doubled between 2007 and 2 0 13 (ONS, 2014), and whereby in 2006, 18.1 per cent of workers were in precarious employment, in 2016, this had increased by 22.2 per cent to 2 million people, over one in five workers (Booth, 2016)
A criticism levied towards Youth Training Scheme (YTS) work schemes in the mid-1980s was that they were a substitute for a paid job; the employer using the worker for free labour rather than employing them

Summary

Bangor University

This article explores the experiences and discourses of precarious work and welfare from the perspectives of young people who are unemployed or in precarious employment, and frontline staff broadly involved in welfare practices. Young people compete for, and frontline workers encourage, unpaid and paid labour market participation, whether stable employment is forthcoming or not, and focus on individualising effort and hard work. This is not new, discipline by welfare stigma and the elevation of work has guided workers both and historically, and a deliberate commodification of labour with work schemes and ‘work first’ approaches, alongside welfare sanctions ensure individuals labour for profit (Daguerre and Etherington, 2014; Grover, 2012). The centrality of work underpinned their discourses and policies, with the assumption that any work could be a stepping-stone towards better work and pay, but it was for the individual to decide whether they wanted to progress. Alongside discourses of ‘hardworking people’ and ‘non-working scroungers’, their ‘work first’ approach mandated getting people into work as soon as possible, presuming that any employment was desirable, despitecontrary evidence of individuals compelled to tak e low paid and precarious work under the threat of sanctions (Slater, 201 2; Patrick, 2012; Briken and Taylor, 2018)

Historical concerns and continuities

Governmentality and the Reserve Army of Labour

Methods

Work Schemes

Mou lding the individual

Th e threat of sanctions

Findings

Conclusion