The labour process of illness work: the hard work of chronic illness in austerity.

MacIver, Emma; Douglas, Flora; Yuill, Chris

Abstract

This paper focuses on the invisibilised, hidden and deleted forms of work undertaken by unemployed people with long-term chronic illnesses who are in receipt of state support. We lay out what Pritlovie et al (2019) term the ‘hard work’ of being ill. Rather than seeking to analyse chronic illness from the perspective of disrupted biography we employ perspectives from the sociology of work: labour process theory and Hatton’(2017, 2019) theorization of invisibilsed labour. We adopt this approach as means of countering prevailing discourses that social agents who are supported by benefits are work-shy, lazy and feckless. The empirical basis of this paper is provided by 20 semi-structured interviews with participants who are both long-term unemployed and have a chronic illness. We identify the extent of the labour they perform in their daily lives, which involves labour related to care of others, their medication and poverty. We firstly discuss how and why that labour becomes invisibilised and seen as hidden or deleted. We then secondly analyse how each form of labour necessitates its own labour process. Doing so brings out issues of power, exploitation and control. It also brings out the density of work required to be unemployed with a chronic illness. Our work therefore provides a counter narrative to negative discourses of illness and employment and indicates an alternative approach to analysing chronic illness.

Citation

MACIVER, E., DOUGLAS, F. and YUILL, C. 2021. The labour process of illness work: the hard work of chronic illness in austerity. Presented at 2021 British Sociological Association (BSA) annual conference: remaking the future, 13 April 2021, [virtual conference].

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: 2021 British Sociological Association (BSA) annual conference: remaking the future
• Conference Location: [virtual conference]
• Start Date: Apr 13, 2021
• Deposit Date: May 11, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: May 11, 2021
• Keywords: Long-term chronic illnesses; Unemployed; Medication; Poverty; Care of others; Labour process theory; Invisibilsed labour
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1334923
• Additional Information: Video recording of presentation (14.25mins).