Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

The commodification of compensation? personal injuries claims in an age of consumption

Ilan, Jonathan (2011) The commodification of compensation? personal injuries claims in an age of consumption. Social and Legal Studies, 20 (1). pp. 39-55. ISSN 0964-6639. (doi:10.1177/0964663910379490) (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:36555)

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/10.1177/0964663910379490

Abstract

This article critiques the opprobrium attached to the phenomenon of tortious compensation seeking observable in those discourses which bemoan the existence of a 'compensation culture' (or 'litigation crisis'). It draws on ethnographic interviews with professionals involved in advancing and defending against compensation claims to demonstrate how issues of consumerism and commercialism have shaped contemporary practice. Where participants locate a heightened claims-consciousness among the socially marginalized, it will be argued that debates on claims-making must be understood in light of consumerist desire and class-cultural judgement. Similarly, where claims resolution practices promote commercial expedience over just entitlement, it will be argued that populist concerns are fuelled by a distrust of abstract, hyper-capitalist modes of responding to personal injury. The ethnography sits within a frame that draws on late-modern social theory to locate both heightened levels of 'litigiousness' and its construction as somewhat 'deviant' within the same socio-economic conditions. © The Author(s) 2011.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/0964663910379490
Uncontrolled keywords: ethnography, late-modernity, personal injuries, public liability, socio-legal studies
Subjects: H Social Sciences
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: 18 Nov 2013 13:13 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:13 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/36555 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Ilan, Jonathan.

Creator's ORCID:
CReDIT Contributor Roles:
  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.