Date of Award
5-2007
Document Type
Master Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (Research)
Department
Humanities and Social Sciences
First Advisor
Dr Colm O Doherty
Abstract
Identity construction in long-term unemployed men over the age of thirty-five was explored using discursive psychological analysis (Wetherell, 2001). Forty participants in County Kerry, who had not engaged with statutory agencies providing employment rehabilitation services, were accessed over a three year period in order to identify the reasons for nonengagement. A grounded theory approach (Bryman, 2004) to data collection was utilised. This yielded six broad codes and eighteen categories of discursive resource drawn upon by the men in constructing identities. In explaining their continued absence from the workforce and lack of engagement with services, discourses identified by Levitas (2004) classifying them as morally deficient (moral underclass discourses) or lacking in skills and resources (social inclusion discourses) were rejected, as were individualising discourses (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2002) which put responsibility with the men themselves for their social situation, in favour of those which drew attention to structural factors relating to social class and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1984). The identities constructed by the men in response to these circumstances centred on their fulfilment of responsibilities which are directed towards social capital formation (O’Doherty, 2007). The men drew upon discursive resources which allowed them to maintain their performance of acceptable masculinities (Connell, 1995). An exception to this model of masculinity, was the inclusion of roles relating to caring and parenting. Consumerist values and the traditional work ethic were rejected and this finding is interpreted in relation to Etzioni’s (2004) concept of voluntary simplicity, as possible evidence of a further category which has been classified as “involuntary simplifier”. Limitations of the research methodology and its interpretative approach are discussed and it is recommended that it might be possible to harness the skills and abilities of the men in the area of social and community care by the reintroduction of a more permanent form of the Community Employment scheme for welfare recipients in this category.
Recommended Citation
Scott, Elizabeth A., "Long-term Unemployed Men: A Social Constructionist Exploration of Identity Construction" (2007). Theses [online].
Available at: https://sword.cit.ie/allthe/820
Access Level
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Coverage
August 2024