Social Change and the Experience of Unemployment (Social Change and Economic Life Initiative) [Hardcover]

Duncan Gallie (Editor), the late Catherine Marsh (Editor), Carolyn Vogler (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0198277822 | ISBN-13: 978-0198277828 | Publication Date: April 28, 1994

The most important and disturbing change in the British labor market over the last two decades has been the re-emergence of mass unemployment. This study is a powerful and comprehensive investigation of the effects of being unemployed on individuals' attitudes towards work, their social relationships, and their psychological health. Breaking new ground in the study of unemployment, the editors use large-scale surveys that allow the first direct comparison between the unemployed and their working counterparts. Their survey takes into account a wide range of variables including the local labor market, the nature of household relations, and people's work and family histories. This in-depth examination of a key area of government policy is sure to be an important resource for policymakers and scholars well into the next century.

Editorial Reviews

Review

`essential reading for all those concerned about the experience of unemployment in contemporary Britain' Work, Employment and Society

`The book is tightly organised, and the contributions of high quality ... the volume provides us with a systematic testing of previously tentative findings about the nature and experience of unemployment.' Social Policy

`the papers shed considerable light on the effects of unemployment, providing much more firmly based evidence and sophisticated analysis than available hitherto in the sociological literature' Work, Employment and Society'

`This is an important publication which should be read by all those involved in economic development, those interested in economic restructuring and by researchers anticipating research into unemployment.' Local Government Studies

`A long overdue exploration of unemployment ... excellently executed.' Stephen McGarry, University of Plymouth

`This volume is an important contribution to a better understanding of the social consequences of unemployment ... a must for all social scientists interested in unemployment and its consequences for individuals, households and society.' Acta Sociologica

`This book addresses a number of important questions, and ... many of the answers ... are adequately established.' European Sociological Review

`An extremely valuable and important piece of empirical research. In themselves, the papers that make up these volumes are excellent.' Sociology

`What is particularly valuable about this volume is the emphasis that it gives to the experience of unemployment, particularly in terms of its psychological and interpersonal dimensions ... hypotheses - as located within various academic debates - are tested by the skilful analysis of empirical data.' Sociology --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Duncan Gallie is a winner of the American Sociology Association's Sorokin Prize. He has taught at Essex and Warwick Universities and lives in Leamington Spa. Catherine Marsh taught at Cambridge University from 1981-1990 and was a Fellow of Newnham College. She was a consultant on sociological statistics to a number of institutions, including the Equal Opportunities Commission, BBC (`Brass Tacks'), the Open University, the Economic and Social Research Council, Cambridge City Council, the Brewers' Society, the News on Sunday, and the Manchester Centre for Exploitation of Science and Technology. She was an examiner for the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, and London, and taught at summer-schools at the universities of Manchester and Kent, and at the Central European University in Prague. She was the author of Hours of Work of Women and Men in Britain (HMSO, 1991) which attracted attention from all the national newspapers and other media. She died in 1993. Carolyn Vogler has held research posts at Nuffield College, Oxford and the University of Essex. She lives in New Barnet, Hartfordshire. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 28, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198277822
• ISBN-13: 978-0198277828
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,128,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A passionate call for full employment, August 4, 2001

By 

William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Social Change and the Experience of Unemployment (The Social Change and Economic Life Initiative) (Treatise on Social Justice) (Paperback)

The book analyses data from three surveys, documenting the experiences of a representative sample of employed and unemployed people in six towns in Britain in 1986 and 1987. The towns were Aberdeen and Kirkcaldy in Scotland, Northampton and Coventry in the Midlands, Rochdale in the North-west and Swindon in the South-west.

THE EFFECTS OF UNEMPLOYMENT

The book shows how unemployment damages people's health and welfare. The authors see unemployment as the extreme case of the almost universal phenomenon of job insecurity. "Those in insecure labour market positions suffered from a series of major disadvantages in terms of personal welfare. The unemployed, the insecure low-paid, and the insecure non-employed stood out from other groups in the degree of financial difficulty they confronted and in the extent to which they had been forced to cut living standards in recent years. Labour market insecurity was also linked to the type and quality of people's housing ... Those in more disadvantaged labour market positions had poorer psychological and physical health and were obliged to make more frequent use of local health services." "There is a direct causal link between job insecurity and poor psychological health." Unemployed people who moved into secure jobs got better; those who moved into insecure jobs got only a little better. Job loss also had a destructive effect on marriages and on social life. But, contrary to myth, the experience of unemployment led to a stronger attachment to collectivist principles.

The industrial genocide of the 1970s and 1980s hit young people most heavily, particularly those who would previously have gone into manufacturing jobs. Class origin determines occupation, due to the lack of education and of apprenticeships; and the nature of the occupation determines the chances of unemployment. Both links are getting stronger, because there is far less social mobility and far more inequality. So although all jobs are more insecure, manufacturing jobs are even more so.

THE CAUSES OF UNEMPLOYMENT

In the debate about the causes of the vast growth in unemployment, employers and their governments blame the 'supply-side', ie the working class. They say that wages and benefits are too high, that trade unions distort supply, that the unemployed are work-shy, that there is a 'culture of poverty' which distinguishes an 'under-class'.

The work attitudes of the unemployed were not different from those of the employed, and did not affect their vulnerability to unemployment. Nor were their work histories different: "The unemployed had not experienced significantly more jobs or shorter average tenure in their longest jobs." "Those that were currently unemployed were clearly not, on the evidence of their past work histories, inherently unstable members of the work-force." "There was no evidence that differences in either employment motivation or in the flexibility of attitudes to job search affected the time that it took people to find work again." Most significantly, work attitudes did not predict who did and who did not get jobs.

Welfare does not reduce employability, skill or will to work. Claimants and non-claimants seeking work had the same work attitudes. The level of benefits had no effect on the duration of unemployment. There is though a 'benefits effect' for women married to men who had been out of work for a year. Benefit rules take away any income earned by the wives of unemployed men on means-tested benefit, on a pound for pound basis, beyond a low threshold (£4 pre-1988). So lower-paid wives can face effective marginal 'taxation' rates of over 90% when they work.

In all, the book is an excellent piece of research, which refutes all the lies about unemployment. It shows that full employment is necessary for any society that wants to be able to call itself civilised.