Silent stories of resistance to doing employment

Abstract

Purpose -Exploring experiences of participants on an Irish active labour market programme, the purpose of this paper is to examine accounts of everyday forms of resistance to the subject positions offered in the dominant discourse of "doing employment" espoused on such schemes. Design/methodology/approach -Employing narrative research, the process of individual opposition to established work routines is illustrated at the level of meaning, identity and selfreflection by using the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space to chronicle three participants' stories. Their newly formed subjectivities (created by changes encountered in their past lives and the situations they are experiencing in their present realities) challenge the power of the dominant discourse of 'doing employment' on these schemes. The paper illustrates how the individuals respond when confronted with feelings of difference between the subject positions offered within the dominant discourse and their own preferred interest. Findings -Their stories suggest different forms of micro-political resistance, from subtle acts and behaviours through to contesting subjectivities and meanings. The article describes how they exercise power in imposing their own meanings through challenge and reinscription, thus rendering the dominant discourse less robust. This creates space for further challenge and reinscription, possibly enabling others to think differently, such as the author, who has moved from unquestioning acceptance of the dominant discourse to an emerging micro-political resistance to "doing employment". Originality/value -These accounts highlight the relevance of using narrative research to reveal, heretofore, silent stories of how individual work routines disrupt prevailing institutional discourse, depicting situations where a story by challenges a story of.

(Re)Constructing Career Strategies After Experiencing Involuntary Job Loss

“…When boundaries begin to dissolve, such as following organizational change and ensuing job loss, established patterns become less appropriate as guides for action, and, simultaneously, revised interactions become more habitualized. In adapting their behaviour to cope with the resultant ambiguity (Mulhall, 2012(Mulhall, , 2013, the former professionals exert agency in the face of structural constraints to maintain continuity in their lives by enacting their career experiences in ways that broadly served their personal interests and goals (Billett & Pavlova, 2005). The analysis of the participants' narratives reinforces the position adopted by Inkson and Elkin (2008, p. 70) of 'agency informed by structure'.…”

“…Maura explains that she is participating in a programme she disrespects. She asserts that those engaging in the scheme are involved in a state-sponsored welfare scam, legitimately defrauding the system by partaking in futile programmes (Mulhall, 2013). Maura is aware of her contradictory position; that is, notwithstanding that she believes the scheme is a con, she is still involved with it.…”

“…Billett & Pavlova, 2005;Blustein et al, 2013;Creed et al, 2010;Dries, 2011;Watson, 2008), it seeks to take into consideration the macro-social context in which people enact their careers. Structural processes, specifically CE, have been identified as significant influences on the former professionals' views of their career experiences and how they enact their career outcomes (Mulhall, 2012(Mulhall, , 2013.…”

Using personal narratives to explore multiple identities in organisational contexts

“…Personal narratives therefore operate as 'meaning-making structures' (Riessman, 2002) located in particular times and contexts (Figueiredo, 2009) that allow narrators to present events that were affected by a specific context of interaction, while affecting the identity they brought forward. Therefore, by looking at personal stories, knowledge about the context and contextual changes (Mulhall, 2013) as well as about individual and collective action located in particular times and places is achieved (Bold, 2012), allowing the exploration of how organisational members move between different identities as a response to contextual and situational organisational changes.…”

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

“…Taking these analyses as its starting point, this article contends that any discussion of activation is incomplete if the question of resistance is not also considered. While scholars have highlighted the governmental power that unemployed people are subject to, comparatively few studies have investigated if and how unemployed people contest this form of subjectification (Edmiston and Humpage, 2016; Mulhall, 2013). Those that do rarely explore the emotional dimensions of such resistance.…”