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Emotional Compliance and Emotion as Resistance: Shame and Anger among the Long-Term Unemployed

Author

Listed:
  • Michelle Peterie

    (University of Queensland, Australia)

  • Gaby Ramia

    (University of Sydney, Australia)

  • Greg Marston

    (University of Queensland, Australia)

  • Roger Patulny

    (University of Wollongong, Australia)

Abstract

Contemporary governments employ a range of policy tools to ‘activate’ the unemployed to look for work. Framing unemployment as a consequence of personal shortcoming, these policies incentivise the unemployed to become ‘productive’ members of society. While Foucault’s governmentality framework has been used to foreground the operation of power within these policies, ‘job-seeker’ resistance has received less attention. In particular, forms of emotional resistance have rarely been studied. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 80 unemployed welfare recipients in Australia, this article shows that many unemployed people internalise activation’s discourses of personal failure, experiencing shame and worthlessness as a result. It also reveals, however, that a significant minority reject this framing and the ‘feeling rules’ it implies, expressing not shame but anger regarding their circumstances. Bringing together insights from resistance studies and the sociology of emotions, this article argues that ‘job-seeker’ anger should be recognised as an important form of ‘everyday resistance’.

Suggested Citation

  • Michelle Peterie & Gaby Ramia & Greg Marston & Roger Patulny, 2019. "Emotional Compliance and Emotion as Resistance: Shame and Anger among the Long-Term Unemployed," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(5), pages 794-811, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:33:y:2019:i:5:p:794-811
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017019845775
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Contini, Dalit & Richiardi, Matteo G., 2012. "Reconsidering the effect of welfare stigma on unemployment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 229-244.
    2. Immervoll, Herwig, 2012. "Activation policies in OECD countries : an overview of current approaches," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 71903, The World Bank.
    3. Filip Fors & Joakim Kulin, 2016. "Bringing Affect Back in: Measuring and Comparing Subjective Well-Being Across Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(1), pages 323-339, May.
    4. Herwig Immervoll & Stefano Scarpetta, 2012. "Activation and employment support policies in OECD countries. An overview of current approaches," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-20, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tom Barnes, 2023. "Punish, protect or redirect? Synthesising workfare with ‘spatially Keynesian’ labour market policies in times of job loss," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(4), pages 871-889, June.
    2. Aracely Soto-Simeone & Teemu Kautonen, 2021. "Senior entrepreneurship following unemployment: a social identity theory perspective," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(6), pages 1683-1706, August.
    3. Thi Truong An Hoang & Andreas Knabe, 2022. "Social Contacts, Unemployment, and Experienced Well-Being. Evidence from Time-Use Data," CESifo Working Paper Series 9953, CESifo.
    4. Owain Smolović Jones & Sanela Smolović Jones & Scott Taylor & Emily Yarrow, 2021. "‘I Wanted More Women in, but . . .’: Oblique Resistance to Gender Equality Initiatives," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(4), pages 640-656, August.
    5. Jessica Gerrard & Juliet Watson, 2023. "The Productivity of Unemployment and the Temporality of Employment-to-Come: Older Disadvantaged Job Seekers," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 28(1), pages 21-36, March.

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