Abstract
Background: Solutions for the problem of long-term unemployment are increasingly shaped by neoliberally-informed logics of activation and austerity. Because the implications of these governing frameworks for everyday life are not well understood, this pilot study applied a critical occupational science perspective to understand how long-term unemployment is negotiated within contemporary North American socio-political contexts. This perspective highlights the implications of policy and employment service re-configurations for the range of activities that constitute everyday life. Methods: Using a collaborative ethnographic community-engaged research approach, we recruited eight people in Canada and the United States who self-identified as experiencing long-term unemployment. We analyzed interviews and observation notes concerning four participants in each context using open coding, critical discourse analysis, and situational analysis. Results: This pilot study revealed a key contradiction in participants’ lives: being “activated, but stuck”. This contradiction resulted from the tension between individualizing, homogenizing frames of unemployment and complex, socio-politically shaped lived experiences. Analysis of this tension revealed how participants saw themselves “doing all the right things” to become re-employed, yet still remained stuck across occupational arenas. Conclusion: This pilot study illustrates the importance of understanding how socio-political solutions to long-term unemployment impact daily life and occupational engagement beyond the realm of job seeking and job acquisition.
Highlights
Introduction and BackgroundAccompanying the rising influence of neoliberal rationalities in many nations, there have been marked changes in the nature of unemployment that have intensified since the 2008 recession [1,2].In this period, unemployment has become more prominent, prolonged and inequitably distributed [3], as evidenced by the fourth quarter 2014 average unemployment rate of 7.1% [4], which is 1.6% higher than its pre-recession level
Drawing on a critical occupational science [31] perspective, our pilot study explored the implications of activation and austerity-based policy and employment service reconfigurations for daily occupations during long-term unemployment
Aligned with idealized subject positions shaped for persons experiencing unemployment, the primary participants positioned themselves as activated subjects who were continuously and consistently engaged in expected job seeking, job preparation, and job acquisition activities
Summary
Introduction and BackgroundAccompanying the rising influence of neoliberal rationalities in many nations, there have been marked changes in the nature of unemployment that have intensified since the 2008 recession [1,2].In this period, unemployment has become more prominent, prolonged and inequitably distributed [3], as evidenced by the fourth quarter 2014 average unemployment rate of 7.1% [4], which is 1.6% higher than its pre-recession level. Official definitions of unemployment only account for people who are out of work and actively looking for work; people who are involuntarily working part-time or classified as “marginally attached” to the labor force remain outside the scope of standard economic analyses Attending to these latter experiences reveals the extensive lack of secure access to sustainable employment [6,7,8]. Because the implications of these governing frameworks for everyday life are not well understood, this pilot study applied a critical occupational science perspective to understand how long-term unemployment is negotiated within contemporary North American socio-political contexts. This perspective highlights the implications of policy and employment service re-configurations for the range of activities that constitute everyday life. Conclusion: This pilot study illustrates the importance of understanding how socio-political solutions to long-term unemployment impact daily life and occupational engagement beyond the realm of job seeking and job acquisition
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