Skip to main content

Work Identity in Crisis?: Rethinking the problem of attachment and loss at work

Strangleman, Tim (2012) Work Identity in Crisis?: Rethinking the problem of attachment and loss at work. Sociology, 46 (3). pp. 411-425. ISSN 0038-0385. (doi:10.1177/0038038511422585) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:34516)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038511422585

Abstract

The identity and meaning people obtain from their work is a central issue in contemporary sociology. There is a debate between those suggesting that we have witnessed either great rupture or continuity in the way employees engage with their jobs. This article reframes the question posed, developing a critical theoretical framework for understanding narratives of change derived from a range of theorists using concepts of nostalgia, tradition and generations. This framework is then used to read a set of work/life history interviews and autobiographical material from mainly older male workers in the UK railway industry who lament the erosion of their workplace culture and the sustainable moral order of the past. The article seeks to move beyond dismissing such accounts as simple nostalgia and instead suggests that these narratives can be understood as valuable organic critiques of industrial and social change emergent from work culture.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/0038038511422585
Uncontrolled keywords: attachment and loss, generations, memory, nostalgia, tradition, work identity and meaning
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Mita Mondal
Date Deposited: 03 Jul 2013 10:22 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:11 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/34516 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)
Strangleman, Tim: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1826-8497
  • Depositors only (login required):