Long‐term ill health and the social embeddedness of work: a study in a post‐industrial, multi‐ethnic locality in the UK

Journal article

Against the background of an increasingly individualising ‘welfare-to-work’ regime, sociological studies of incapacity and health-related worklessness have called for an appreciation of the role of history and context in patterning individual experience. This paper responds to that call by exploring the work experiences of long-term sick people in East London, a post-industrial, multi-ethnic locality. It demonstrates how individual experiences of long-term sickness and work are embedded in social relations of class, generation, ethnicity and gender, which shape people’s formal and informal routes to work protection, work-seeking practices, and responses to worklessness. We argue that this social embeddedness requires greater attention in ‘welfare-to-work’ policy.

Authors: Qureshi, K; Salway, S; Chowbey, P; Platt, L

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd
• Journal: Sociology of Health and Illness
• Volume: 36
• Issue: 7
• Pages: 955-969
• Publication date: 2014-03-19
• Edition: Accepted Manuscript
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-9566.12128
• ISSN: 0141-9889
• Language: English
• Keywords: work; social embeddedness; incapacity; industrial restructuring; illness
• Subjects: Medical anthropology; Health and health policy; Ethnic minorities and ethnicity; Welfare state reform and change