Pernille Hohnen

Having the wrong kind of money. A qualitative analysis of new forms of financial, social and moral exclusion in consumerist Scandinavia

Consumerism not only promotes discourses emphasizing individualized consumer choices, but it also introduces new electronic, invisible and symbolic forms of money. The present article analyses social exclusion in contemporary Scandinavian society by focusing on patterns of consumption and the social meaning of money in low-income households in Denmark and Sweden. Drawing on recent sociological theory on money and budgeting (Pahl, 1999, 2002; Singh, 1997, 1999; Zelizer, 1997, 2005) and recent critiques of consumption studies (Edgell, Hetherington and Warde 1996; Gronow and Warde, 2001; Lodziak, 2002), it argues that experiences of social and financial exclusion in consumerist society must be related to the amount of money available within the household, the social position that the household occupies, and the social form that this money takes. Pahl (1999) shows that the development of electronic money seems to alter and further constrain access to consumption for the ‘credit poor’ and ‘information poor’. To this ‘technological filter’, a ‘social filter’ may be added, as the results suggest that consumption patterns and the social meaning of money in low-income families are largely incompatible with prevailing neo-liberalist ideas of money and consumption in contemporary society.

Trade unions strategies to address inclusion of vulnerable employees in “anchored” services in Europe

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how trade unions may address the questions of inclusion of vulnerable employees in low-wage “anchored” sectors in the European Union. Design/methodology/approach - – The findings presented in the paper are mainly results of the analysis of stakeholder policies and strategies on the national level and on the European level, including both desk research and interviews with social partner representatives and other experts in the sectors as well as company case studies carried out in the examined countries in three selected sectors: cleaning, waste collection and catering. Findings - – The main findings of the paper refer to the indirect way in which trade unions try to promote the inclusion of vulnerable groups in the examined sectors. On this basis are formulated policy recommendations. Research limitations/implications - – The paper is based on case study research that does not cover all possible “anchored” services, vulnerable groups and types of countries, according to their employment and social models. Practical implications - – This paper formulates practical recommendations to European trade unions in the services. Originality/value - – The originality of the paper is related to comparative research focused on services sectors and the consequences of the spatial reorganisation of sectors for the trade union actions.

Citizens as consumers: A discussion of new emergent forms of marginalization in the Nordic welfare states.

The Nordic welfare state has traditionally been associated with principles of universalism, a high degree of collective welfare redistribution and an encompassing state. However in recent years, in line with the rest of Europe, we have seen a tendency towards a more market-oriented welfare state, reflected in policy changes characterised by a renewed division of welfare responsibility between public and private, a movement from a direct protection of citizens towards enabling them to individually satisfy their welfare needs within markets, thereby promoting freedom of choice as a significant dimension of welfare services. However, although this is not usually part of the public debate concerning increased marketisation of the welfare state, these changes require a specific set of individual competences and capacities to navigate, foresee and plan ones own future and calculate ones future welfare needs. Based on empirical data analysing financial practices and orientation amongst two different groups of citizens, the paper discusses the possible implications of this increased individualisation of welfare for different groups of citizens – low-income and middle-income groups. Although both groups show a high degree of willingness to comply with norms associated with consumer-citizenship, clear distinctions arise when we look at the actual possibilities and ‘capabilities’ of complying with the emerging role and assumed behaviour inherent in the development of the consumer-citizenship welfare regime.

Experiences of Participation Citizenship: A Bottom-up Analysis of the Social Rights and Obligations of Work-Disabled Employees in Denmark and the Netherlands

This article analyses the integration of labour market policy and social security in terms of the new kinds of citizenship regimes that it epitomizes. By means of a qualitative bottom-up analysis focusing on the experiences of re-integrated partially work-disabled employees in Denmark and the Netherlands, the article reveals significant differences in the experiences of social rights relating to labour market participation in the two countries.

‘You can’t use this, and you mustn’t do that’: A qualitative study of non-consumption practices among Danish pregnant women and new mothers:

Anti-consumption literature focuses on consumers’ reasons for avoiding certain products or brands emphasizing consumers’ symbolic and/or political reasons for avoidance. Consumers’ choices have assumedly been voluntary. In contrast, this article discusses anti-consumption as a less explicitly political but also less voluntary form of anti-consumption, termed non-consumption. The empirical data consist of nine in-depth interviews with Danish pregnant women and new mothers regarding potentially ‘risky’ products. The article shows how their avoidance of certain forms of consumption reflects their struggle to perceive themselves – and be perceived by others – as competent mothers(-to-be). Risk is avoided, minimized, modified or balanced against prevailing habits and discourses of womanhood such as the risk of parabens against ideals of beauty when using cosmetic products. The article contributes to the anti-consumption literature by offering insights into the highly normative but less explicitly political field of constrained consumption reflected in the everyday micro-consumption practices of Danish pregnant women and new mothers.

Working for Life: Workers’ Career Aspirations and Their Experiences of Past Career Trajectories and Present Working Conditions

Drawing on workers’ narratives about their working life, this chapter describes and analyses the perception of future work and career options among low-skilled workers in cleaning, catering, waste collection and elderly care sectors in Europe. Reflecting the Danish elderly care worker quoted above, we found that many workers experienced wear and tear, and expressed concerns about working until retirement. Unlike the worker quoted, however, few workers had long-term plans or ideas about how to deal with these problems, or were able to express alternative ideas. When asked to elaborate on their future career plans, most answers took the form of short-term ideas focusing on small-scale improvements. In this chapter, we discuss this apparent discrepancy between workers’ ambiguous evaluations of their present work situation on the one hand and the lack of alternative career plans on the other.

Reciprocity, Allegiance and the Market: Social Integration Still at Work

At the risk of stating the obvious, social relationships are a functional requirement of getting any job done and coordinating work as soon as societies divide labour. This has been an established insight of both industrial sociology and human resource management (Thompson and McHugh, 2002). Sociologists of work have continuously discovered and rediscovered issues of power and conflict, but also of consent, of social exchange, intersubjective expectations and negotiations, norms and values. However, the common sense of recent debates on restructuring and fragmentation of work appears to be that market pressures, globalisation, restructuring and technological change corrode and individualise these relationships and patterns of social order (Bolton and Houlihan, 2009; Thompson, 2003).