Conceptualizing Precarious Employment Through the Lens of Social Reproduction: Potential Implications for Health Research and Action

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ahonen EQ ; Saavedra L ; Tsui EK ; Vignola EF
• Description:
  Research on the health and well-being impact of precarious employment (PE) commonly conceptualizes employment as a relation of power between workers and employers, a perspective informed by power relations and relational social class theories. Social reproduction theory is a less common but complementary conceptual lens that can be used to investigate PE and health, in which the nature of work has relevance for the quality of employment. Social reproduction theory points to relations between groups of workers who are valued differently based on the capacity of their work to generate profit. Attending to relations between workers based on value, in addition to the well-established power relation between workers and employers, may point to consequences for health and well-being that are worth exploring empirically, and could serve as another tool to spur collective action around PE and its health effects. We provide an illustration and discuss the potential implications of this theoretical approach using data from in-depth interviews conducted in 2022 among precariously employed food workers in New York City. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Precarious Employment Health Inequalities Occupational Health Equity Power Relations Qualitative Analysis SDOH Social Determinants Of Health Social Reproduction Well-being Work Work Arrangements

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• ISSN:
  2667-3215
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Denver Region [OSHA] ; New York ; New York City Region [OSHA] ; San Francisco Region [OSHA] ; Utah ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20070270
• Citation:
  SSM Qual Res Health 2024 Dec; 6:100494
• Contact Point Address:
  Emilia F. Vignola, University of Washington, Department of Epidemiology, 3980 15th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
• Email:
  evignola@uw.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2025
• Performing Organization:
  University of Utah
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20210901
• Source Full Name:
  SSM - Qualitative Research in Health
• End Date:
  20260831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:021907f80edeb8cc644f807d25b34f1e9984585ef0e28103a1107b08a0481142078d51eb6323743f49a95952d7f50c943509accf8cf5c9770da868b7af839e18
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/208517/cdc_208517_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 438.60 KB ]