Status fixity and dirty workers' experiences of recognition

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Slutskaya, Natalia, Game, Annilee, Morgan, Rachel, Delabre, Izabela and Newton, Tim (2025) Status fixity and dirty workers' experiences of recognition. Sociology. ISSN 0038-0385

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Abstract

Based on interviews with waste management workers, this study focuses on changes in low-paid/low-status workers’ experiences of recognition during and after the pandemic. In this article, we explore these developments, drawing on the work of Honneth, Fraser, Neckel and Reckwitz. Our analysis challenges the rather romanticised treatment of recognition that persists in existing research on dirty work. In particular, though the pandemic heightened societal awareness of the value of essential services, we found that these emancipatory moments were short lived, as status hierarchies remained largely unchallenged. Instead, workers’ experiences during the pandemic suggest a growing sense of status fixity and polarisation which, following Neckel and Reckwitz, reflect a broader sharpening in economic and cultural inequality.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Uncontrolled Keywords: dirty work,inequality,polarisation,recognition,status fixity,sociology and political science,sdg 10 - reduced inequalities ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3312
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Employment Systems and Institutions
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 08 Aug 2025 08:30
Last Modified: 22 Dec 2025 11:30
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/100113
DOI: 10.1177/00380385251365514

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