Stefan Hardonk

Constructing positive identities in ableist workplaces: Disabled employees’ discursive practices engaging with the discourse of lower productivity

This article explores how disabled workers engage with the ableist discourse of disability as lower productivity in constructing positive identities in the workplace. Disabled employees inhabit a contradictory discursive position: as disabled individuals, they are discursively constructed for what they are unable to do, whereas as employees they are constituted as human resources and expected to be able to produce and create value. Our discourse analysis of 30 in-depth interviews with disabled employees identifies three types of discursive practices through which they construct positive workplace identities: (1) practices contesting the discourse of lower productivity as commonly defined; (2) practices contesting the discourse of lower productivity by redefining productivity; and (3) practices reaffirming the discourse of lower productivity yet refusing individual responsibility for it. The study advances the disability literature by highlighting how disabled speakers sustain positive workplace identities despite the negative institutionalized expectations of lower productivity both by challenging and reproducing ableism as an organizing principle.

Analysing care-related decisions in parents of congenitally deaf children: introduction of an explanatory model

Research into issues of deafness is characterised by the dominance of the medical model of disability. Although social and cultural-linguistic models have received increasing attention from scholars, they have been used mainly in theoretical debate. Empirical application has been limited. Based on our comprehensive research project into the care-related decisions of parents of congenitally deaf children in Flanders, Belgium, an explanatory model for care-related parental decisions was constructed, which transcends the specific findings generated by our studies. This model is presented and discussed in this paper. Illustrations are provided based on our empirical findings.

Temporary agency workers as outsiders: an application of the established-outsider theory on the social relations between temporary agency and permanent workers

Temporary agency workers are often portrayed as peripheral workers in organisations. Hence, they present a compelling illustration of the established-outsider theory of Elias and Scotson. According to this theory, differences in social cohesion, group charisma, and power of the members of subgroups within social entities can lead to an established-outsider figuration between these subgroups, which is maintained by processes of stigmatisation and exclusion. Applying a narrative approach, we focus on social relations between temporary agency and permanent workers along three routes. First, we show how and why social cohesion, group charisma, and power possession in the established group of permanent workers shape an established-outsider figuration. Second, we discuss how mechanisms such as stigmatisation and exclusion maintain this figuration. Third, we illustrate why temporary agency workers have the feeling of being stuck in their outsider situation. To accomplish our aims, we conducted in-depth interviews with temporary agency workers in Belgium. Our analyses are focused on temporary agency workers who encountered mainly negative experiences regarding temporary agency employment.

The experience of employment strain and activation among temporary agency workers in Canada

ABSTRACT This article integrates the employment strain model with the social stress model in order to reveal the mechanisms that explain the relation between precarious employment and mental well-being. This model is applied to the case of temporary agency employment by analysing 41 in-depth interviews with temporary agency workers from Canada. The results show how temporary agency workers perceive employment-related uncertainties and efforts mainly as negative and to a lesser extent as positive experiences, respectively evoking strain or activation. Further, it is revealed how uncertainties and efforts mutually reinforce each other, which increases strain, and how support can serve as a buffer.